Forever Sailor Fuku
by MiracleInterrupter
Summary: Girls outgrow their sailor fuku. But one girl will regrow it. And possibly—if her controlling sister permits—marry it.
1. The Way of a Woman

"How about this? Or this, or this, or THIS?!" Mako asked, adding more and more pajamas to the towering pile balanced in Ryuuko's arms.

"Uh, I don't know," Ryuuko mumbled, overburdened by the ceiling-high tower. "I just... need something really cute, I guess!" All around her, fellow customers of the trendy fashion boutique—with their bee-hive hair, fake eyelashes, and deco'd nails—gawked in bewilderment as Mako and Satsuki continued ransacking every shelf and hanger.

"Hn. Then how about this?" Satsuki asked, holding up a white, drapey-long sundress. "Simplicity and form." Her aura flashed brightly as her thick eyebrows raised like drawbridges. "Simplicity is elegance! Elegance is beauty! And beauty..." She paused. "Is... is something like cuteness?"

Ryuuko grunted, struggling to balance the pile as she followed the still-roaming Mako. "You don't sound too sure of yourself," she said and then added, "sis."

Satsuki huffed slightly and turned to the employees, instantly commanding their attention. "Prepare us a dressing area." She glowered ominously as she pulled out a shining black titanium card. "And an overnight courier service."

"Yes Madam!" the shop girls yelped in unison, abandoning other customers in order to part the store—mannequins, tables, and racks—for clearing a runway.

"Sis? Sis!" Ryuuko gasped. "What is going on?"

Satsuki clicked a heel and walked forward. "A fashion show," she answered. She had already returned to her former bossy self.

Ryuuko dropped the pile, toppling it clear across the store and further busying the shop girls. "Are you for real?!" Ryuuko roared. "Just pick some really cute outfit, like a shirt or something! What's with this pretentious rich-girl act? I'm not trying on all this crap!"

"Dear little sister," Satsuki began, training her eyes on her, "for the past six hours, you've rejected every article of clothing we've presented you, in numerous stores from the beginning of the Shibuya strip to the end of the line here." Her face hardened to a sketch-book degree. "By now, I am CONVINCED that this 'really cute' outfit you speak of does not exist! So we will MAKE it exist. For the sake of your happiness! Now. STRIP."

Ryuuko screamed as the shop girls tried to remove her black and white varsity jacket. They succeeded in removing everything else, somehow. "No!" Off it went, and the last outer article she wore—her red scarf—remained firm in her hands. "No! NO! Let go!" She bellowed with explosive rage and hung on: "There's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing, don't take it away!"

Satsuki blinked, the distant memory of her little sister's disgraced, defeated form on that slum rooftop flooding her mind—along with the sight of Senketsu's scattered pieces. Even then, as those pieces were taken away, Ryuuko lashed out unconsciously in her sleep, and refused to allow that last piece of Senketsu to be taken away. His red scarf. No matter how naked and beaten-down Ryuko was. No matter what. Though she had nothing left, she acted tough and convinced Satsuki to give her one more chance. Tears were in those closed eyes back then. _Heartsick tears, _Satsuki thought,_ not just for the loss of her way, but for the loss of him_. _From that point on, he became her way. I didn't understand it then, but I think I do now. But still... _Satsuki lowered her head and wavered. "I still can't do anything for her!" she gasped lowly, full of concern for her little sister.

A hallejujah chorus sang out and Mako stole the spotlight, her arms crossed as she stood atop a table-full of folded camisoles. "Ryuuko's 'really cute' outfit really does exists! It does, it exists!" Mako declared, pointing at Ryuuko, placing her hands around Ryuuko, and then latching upside-down onto Ryuuko. "It exists inside her! In her heart! Her Sunday best! Forever and ever! It might not exist here." Mako swung her arms around to gesticulate the sphericalness of the earth, all before patting Ryuuko's left breast. "But it's in here. So it must be brought from outside Ryuuko's insides in order for it to become Ryuuko's outsides." Mako shook her head and slapped the air, then raising her palms in a pleading manner while continuing: "Ryuuko's only joy in life was her really cute, half-naked outfit. This was Ryuuko's soulmate and her secret treasured pastime. Ryuuko's treasured pastime was a kinky sailor fuku." She donned a black cloak and rolled off an imagined cliff. "So we must take it upon ourselves to unite them at the crossroads of Ryuuko's promised land! A costume shop full of kinky sailor fuku!" She began flossing Ryuuko's left arm-pit with a pair of red suspenders. "We must journey to Ryuuko's promised land!"

"WHAT?" Ryuuko ejected, appropriately perplexed. "I... I've outgrown sailor uniforms!"

Satsuki huffed, seemingly understanding all this. "Ryuuko... little sister," she murmured. "These days, you're so angry and reckless. I understand one needs to be backed by a strong drive to let go of the past. However, there is such a thing as trying too hard—"

Ryuuko looked up. "—Enough!" she interrupted and scowled sharply. "It's no big deal. Quit worrying about me! I'll take all these damn clothes, OK?! I'll wear all these damn clothes then! I'm an adult now! Just—" she threw on a pair of tiny pajamas and ran past them all, "—Lay off me!" She jetted out the front door.

Satsuki and Mako were left behind, wide-eyed and intensely worried.

Into the city Ryuuko ran, her red scarf pulled up over her face in an effort to escape the curious eyes of others. Stumbling, blinded by self-doubt and the truth uncovered by her sister, darkness fell, and after stealing a motorcycle at one point, and working herself out from the ensuing police chase, she found herself lost in the middle of the nearby red light district.

"It's just like me," Ryuuko said with a laugh as her motorcycle ran out of gas, "to lose my way..." She hopped off the bike and ditched it against a lamp post. And she continued on, unblinking before all the raunchy ads pasted up on walls, she glanced between two back-lit love hotel signs and spied in the window of a hole-in-the-wall costume shop: a black and red sailor fuku. Walking up, wearily, she placed a hand on the glass and gazed upon the uniform and its leather harness accessory. _It's just__ like... Senketsu,_ she thought, thinking about how he used to feel against her skin. Soft. Warm. All-touching, like a glove. A terrible longing struck her chest again—and as she looked up at the dark sky above—she was reminded even further how impossible it was.

It was impossible to ever wear Senketsu again.

Tears dripped from her eyes relentlessly. They just spilled out, no matter how much she tried to suck it in. "Damn it," she croaked, lightly punching the window. "Why does it hurt so bad? I've graduated! I've outgrown childhood, good riddance, and blasted past everything! At the end, sailor uniforms should be boxed-up or given away. Sailor uniforms are just sailor uniforms!" She pressed on the glass again. "Sailor uniforms should just be sailor uniforms... sailor uniforms should be... should just be..." She slumped as if she'd hit a psychic wall.

_Why won't this pressure inside my chest go away?_ Ryuuko wondered, placing a hand over her heart:_ I felt so different after dad died. I felt bitterness. Fire. Outrage. That's what death meant to me. But now... _But now, all these words seemed meaningless to her. She eyed the sailor fuku's crisp broadcloth pleats._ Ever since then, every day feels like an exhausting run down a long, unending hallway._ _And I, just a rocket-driven robot traveling down it. Watching. Chasing a ghost of my best time_—those best times of my life_—o__nly to remember the terrifying reality all over again._

"Senketsu," she said under her breath. "You... dumbass! Are you JUST a sailor uniform? Is that all you WERE? This is... How can I keep screeching this mantra nonstop like this?" She held her head in mental strain. "Not only did you encourage me to keep being senseless like this, but you put me on an impossible task! How can I wear cuter clothes to make you jealous when nothing... nothing on this earth, nothing in this galaxy—no, the universe—is cuter than you!" She kicked her foot up on the glass and growled. "Not even this lame imitation! What am I even... God damn it, Senketsu!"

The shop door jingled open and two hunched-over men clutching paper bags wandered out. "Oh, I think she's gonna buy it," one said to the other.

The other laughed. "Heh. She's really into it. The guy she's planning on wearing that for," he said, "is one lucky freak."

Ryuuko grimaced and clenched a fist. "Bastards," she muttered under her breath, having half a mind to go beat them up but then reasoning her behavior was any more decent. "The only person I'd be wearing this for now," she clutched jacket, "is myself." She turned away.

She walked away.

And with one look over her shoulder at the store, her resolve broke and she ran straight back.

The sailor fuku was yanked from the window display and Ryuuko found herself outside, moments later, hunched over and clutching it in a paper bag. "I... I did it," she said to herself, breathing heavily and in a somewhat suspicious manner. She darted around in an effort to keep a low-profile but unfortunately induced the opposite. As she miraculously found her way back to Shibuya and then the scramble crossing, she saw live-feed video of herself on all the outdoor screens—along with the label 'Suspicious female pervert on the loose' in big red letters straight across the top. "Geh!" Ryuuko gasped, turning around to figure out where the camera was hidden but then opting to cover her face with the paper bag instead. While wandering away, she bumped into somebody. It was Mako.

"Ryuuko, there you are!" Mako cried, her back saddled with shop bags and hat boxes. "Your super cool sis bought us lots and lots of pajamas and rompers! I even got some complicated underwear that's something of a mystery as to how it's put on, but you know what they say. You can never have too many openings, right?!"

"Uhhh. Ah," Ryuuko grunted suspiciously in agreement. She hid the paper bag behind her.

"Oh! Did you go to your promised land?"

Ryuuko's face went completely red. "NO," she said. "No! I deny everything!" Her mouth flattened. "I-I am an adult."

Satsuki appeared. "If you're done with your little... outing," she said, coughing into her fist, "the cab is ready. Are you staying at The Mankanshouko's tonight or coming home with me?"

"I did nothing weird!" Ryuuko went on, pointing at the tattle-tale big screen which was now replaying scenes of her going into the seedy costume shop. "That wasn't me!" The screen showed an up-close of her face, as if countering her argument in real-time.

With a shining battle aura, Satsuki stared down at Ryuuko from the top of her menacingly stony jowl—much like a deranged eagle. "You seem tired," Satsuki intoned, her eyes as sharp as blades, "why don't you come home for tonight. We haven't spent much time together. I'll make you a delicious home-cooked meal, draw a hot bath for you, and once you're in your comfy pajamas, I'll clean your ears and so tuck you into bed. Just like a normal human family does. My dear little sister."

"A, um, as you wish... Sis," Ryuuko stammered in light of Satsuki's detailed and scarily-affectionate promises.

"Uwa! I wish I could BE such an awesome big sis!" Mako cried, smacking her squishy face with great enthusiasm. "When I get home, I'm going to put ALL my being into being one, too!"

Satsuki folded her arms and blushed slightly at this, and soon enough, the chauffeured cab drove up and they gladly piled in, goods and all. All throughout the ride, Ryuuko kept the paper bag seated on her lap—and even during the moments of Mako's improvised singing with concerning lyrics—a smile lifted on her face. She now had an unknown confidant to tell all her secrets to. Once again.

They arrived home in time for Satsuki to fulfill each and every one of her promises with unnecessary severity. "Good night, dear little sister," she said, pulling the covers tightly over Ryuuko, "EYAH HWAH RAGH—" and jabbing her hands under Ryuuko's sides to deliberately make sure she was securely tucked into bed. And unable to escape.

"G...good n...ight, sis," Ryuuko responded weakly, too bound-up to annunciate properly.

"Don't be getting up now. It's bed time." Frowning strongly, Satsuki patted Ryuuko's head. "It was a busy day today and you're tired now. You need proper rest. I love you."

"Hn," Ryuuko grumbled self-consciously, "I... love you too. sis."

As she left, Satsuki turned the lights off and closed the door to Ryuuko's massive, shopping bag and croquette-filled bedroom—all the croquettes being made by Satsuki, of course, as she'd personally learned the recipe from the Mankanshouko mother. _I know sis means well, _Ryuuko thought with a disbelieving smile afterwards, staring at the massive looming objects in the dark, _but she kinda goes overboard at times..._

For the next few minutes, Ryuuko fidgeted and struggled, finally managing to pry herself loose from her bed. Worming her way across the floor, still encased in her blankets, she dug through her stuff with her teeth and fished out the paper bag containing her new sailor fuku. After a few more bouts of intense wriggling, her blankets fell free and she took the bag in hand. Clutching it preciously, and grabbing a hanger from the nearby armoire, she walked to the window and hung the sailor fuku on the frame, her restless eyes watching it swing gently in the moonlight. Standing back, and being not quite satisfied with how it hung, she stepped forward and re-adjusted the uniform's knotted scarf.

"Senketsu," Ryuuko whispered at last, pausing to make sure no one had heard. "It's been a while since we last talked, huh?"

Silence.

"I'm living with my sister now. She's intense and thorough. It's a little difficult at times, but I know it's only because she cares about me... or whatever." Ryuuko blushed. "It's weird having a sibling. I guess... I'm just not used to having someone fuss over me so seriously. Well. You fussed over me. But it was a little different, I think..."

The sailor fuku was navy like the night, blending into emptiness and embracing it. This was just how it was, no matter what. Now matter how much she wanted it.

"It somehow makes me happy. I think everything might almost be perfect now... You know?"

The red scarf on the sailor fuku did not stare at her; it was completely eyeless. Nobody was there. Nobody was listening.

But Ryuuko kept searching.

For the first time since that day, her buried feelings escaped, and unable to contain it any longer, she reached out and grabbed the uniform. Holding it in her arms, her breath quivered. "Senketsu," she managed out between suppressed sobs, "Senketsu!" She fell to the floor, curled-up and hugging the sailor fuku with trembling hands, her body attempting to absorb any spare warmth it offered. "Don't look down on me, you..." Shivering, dissatisfied with its mere insulation, she clung closer until she finally felt comfortable enough to lose herself in it. Soundless tears washed over her cheeks for the first time in a long while. But as they did, she felt the embrace of a sailor fuku.

There was finally warmth.

When Ryuuko opened her eyes that next morning, she found herself re-tucked into bed. She laid there, dazed. How nice it often was, waking up like this, all groggy. Because in these moments, to her half-asleep mind, everything was right with the world. Nothing was wrong. It was always minutes after she'd step out of bed that she'd remember that Senketsu was gone and she was alone in getting dressed for the day. Though she always tried forgetting about it in her sleep, and dream about a normal life with him in her dreams, this fact presented itself to her every day in a shocking reveal. Over and over. Beating her over the head like a lead brick of voiceless agony.

When Ryuuko stood up, she found the sailor fuku hanging up on her window frame. She reached out and slipped it on. At the time, this made perfect sense to her. But as she walked for the door, she paused in thought. "Wait... This uniform," she said, looking down at it. "Did sis come back and check on me in the night?" She cringed at how pathetic a sight she must've been to her big sis. "That's right. I fell asleep clinging to this, my face drenched with snot and... Urgh." She gazed at her uniform in her full-length mirror. "How embarrassing!"

There was a knock at the door. "Little sister," Satsuki's voice said. "Breakfast is ready. Are you already up?"

Ryouko dashed to tear off the sailor fuku and tuck it away under her large, princess-style canopy bed. "Y-yeah, I'm up," she yelled back. "I'll be out in a moment! Just trying on all these clothes! Whoah!" She reached down and crumpled some bags to sound busy. "These are some... some seriously kick-ass rompers!"

"Hm. Take your time. I'll be waiting." Satsuki's footsteps padded away.

"Hwuu," Ryuuko sighed relief, checking on her hidden sailor fuku. "Wait. If she already saw it, and even hung it back up for me, why am I bothering to hide it?" She contemplated this excellent question well after she was seated at the breakfast table. Satsuki, wearing old-fashioned frilly apron and headscarf get-up, walked in and placed a massive heaping platter of omurice before the girl.

"Eat up," Satsuki said with a lightning-sharp glare. "I made it just the way you like it. With extra soy sauce. And extra care." A confidant light emanated off her poised shoulders.

Ryuuko sweated under this pressure. "Thank you, sis," she said meekly, staring at the word 'LOVE' drawn in ketchup atop the giant folded omelette. "It looks... super delicious."

After they'd eaten, in silence, the butler walked in and announced that a visitor had arrived for Lady Satsuki. Once her sister excused herself, Ryuuko continued to remain seated, even when the maids cleared the dishes away.

Ryuuko's thoughts turned back to the sailor fuku. _It looks a lot like him,_ she thought, _but it's missing his eyes... er. Eye. _She wondered if there were some needles and thread around for remedying this. _Well! It's not like I'm ignoring his last request to wear cuter things than him or anything. I'll just improve the design a little. That's right! _She nodded her head. _Such a uniform would technically be cuter with just the addition of a few bows or eye-patches or whatever..._

There was a loud shuffling of feet, and before Ryuuko could mentally prepare herself, Nonon Jakuzure, the pink-hued former-bandleader of the Elite Four, threw herself into the room. "What's this?!" she quacked. "Is the cherished little sister moping in the dining hall, thinking small thoughts while her sister has tea all by her lonesome?" She stood over Ryuuko accusatively. "Oh! Or has it been too-overwhelming for her, bathing in the glorious affections of our Lady Satsuki?!"

Ryuuko scowled in annoyance. "Hey. You're the visitor," she said, "who called her away from our family breakfast, aren't you? If so, what are you even doing in here?" She scoffed. "What? Did you get lost in the halls?"

Nonon hissed and gnashed her teeth together. "Don't get so full of yourself!" she snapped. "You may be Lady Satsuki's sister, but you're still lounging thanklessly in the arms of her selfless mercy!"

"Get off my back!"

"You know it's true!"

"Listen here!" Ryuuko roared, slamming a foot up on the table. "I appreciate it well enough! I do! But if you're still dissatisfied, why don't we switch places tonight and YOU can have her insist on scrubbing the skin off your back with a pumice stone or skewering your brain with an ear pick! Let's see you try and survive that, you mouthy little flat note!"

Nonon went silent. "I just might consider it," she responded seriously, then sticking out her tongue. "And if I'm a flat note, you're a total b." She left.

"Geez!" Ryuuko blurted. Upon leaving the table, she got a sewing box from the maids—and after locating some rags—returned to her room to cut out and fashion the eye and eyepatch for her Senketsu cosplay. The clock by her bed clicked at a steady pace, and for the rest of the day, she stayed locked up in devout solitude. Sewing. Snipping. Working meticulously to perfect the details of her sailor fuku. As the sun fell, casting orange light across her white walls, she wiped her eyes sleepily and hung her masterpiece on her canopy bed's upper rails. "There we go, all better... Senketsu," she said. "Well! Sis hasn't checked on me at all this evening... Maybe I should check on her then, huh? Although, Nonon visited, so they might've left somewhere..." She gently patted the sleeves. "Right, right. I guess I shouldn't bother her now." She pushed her face into the sailor fuku and inhaled deeply.

She stood like that, motionless, as darkness fell and then well beyond then. Standing.

"Senketsu."

Nothing else mattered.

"I'm glad you're back. I'll admit it. I missed you. You missed me too, right?" She emitted an off-kilter laugh. "Of course."

For the rest of the month, Ryuuko continued on this path, her delusions intensifying as she locked her door and intimately conversed with the lifeless sailor fuku. Deciding she needed no one else, and nothing else, she closed her curtains, kept the door shut, and forsake the outside world. She stopped calling Mako. She stopped sitting down at the dining table with Satsuki. Dirty platters piled in her room, since she refused anybody entrance and was too paranoid to push them outside. On the fourth week of this crazed, shut-in typified behavior, her concerned older sister Satsuki demanded her presence—and upon being denied—confronted her. By kicking down the door.

"Ryuuko, this has gone on long enough," Satsuki said. "Hand over Senketsu-Two, at once!" She shoved Ryuuko and pulled the uniform away.

"NO!" Ryuuko let-out a wild, ear-piercing yell and tugged right back, her eyes swirling from her peculiar, out-of-control psychosis. "You can't take Senketsu away from me... I won't LET YOU. Nothing can—I've said it before! You tried in the past, spreading his pieces around, causing me nothing but anguish, but NO MORE, this time I'll p—"

With a loud smack, Satsuki slapped Ryuuko and sent her splintering across the room's piles of abandoned clothing. With a boom, Ruuko touched-down and slammed into the back wall, the entire surface cracking and contouring around her haggard body.

"Ryuuko...!" Satsuki blasted and gleamed blindingly from this justice she'd just dealt. "Look at yourself! Look at what you've become!" She swept an arm out, displaying the trashed room. "This is... it is none other than DISGRACEFUL."

Ryuuko opened her eyes, their swirly-ness dissipating and her sanity finally returning. Aware of what she'd become, of how she'd let herself go, she trembled in self-revulsion. "I—I," she stammered, the wind still knocked out of her, "I'm so sorry... sis." Ryuuko slid down and collapsed on her knees. "But don't look at me right now." She hiccuped once, then twice, and with the lowering of her head, sobbed hard. "I'm disgusting!"

Satsuki fought to keep her composure at this gut-wrenching scene. In effect, her slipping expression hardened into a pitiless glare. "Get up," she said. "Put on Senketsu-two." She threw the sailor fuku at her sister. "And let's go somewhere. On another date. I'll summon The Mankanshouko here so she can come along too. We'll wear our old school uniforms together. You won't be alone any longer. So, Ryuuko... Get up."

Fighting her wobbly knees, Ryuuko stood up, her tear-swollen eyes lowered and her shoulders tensed. "Ok," she said. "Let's go then. I'll go out in public for the first time in days. I'll do it. Because I can't continue on this pathetic downslope any more." She exhaled sharply. "I have to live my life... for Senketsu!"

Satsuki's mouth twisted into a smile. Turning aside, she pulled out her cell and phoned-in a short order to airlift Mako to their mansion at once—along with some leftover school uniforms.

Ryuuko reluctantly began to dress. "Ah, sis?" she asked curiously, having waited until Satsuki was done with her call. "I've been stuck in here for days, so... I should take bath."

"Oh? You took one last night."

Ryuuko paused and tilted her head agitatedly. "Huh?" For some reason or another, she couldn't remember this. "No I didn't. I can't even remember the last time I did!"

Satsuki stared at her. "Yes. Though you've been a shut-in slob of a little sister for the past month or so, self-maintenance was the only thing you kept up on."

"I... really?" Ryuuko froze. Had her manic episode taken away chunks of her very own memory?

"It's true." Satsuki clicked a heel and walked forward. "You've persisted in waking me up at odd hours of the night, behaving erratically and saying incredibly strange things," Satsuki turned around, furrowing her eyebrows and deepening her voice in demonstration, "things such as, 'HONORABLE SISTER, please assist me with cleansing Ryuuko's body! Human skin is truly a complicated thing... I accidentally burned it with an iron!' How troublesome." Satsuki folded her arms and closed her eyes dourly. "I was forced to call-in specialists."

Ryuuko inspected her sailor fuku. _What the hell?_ she wondered, then glancing down at her stomach and finding an iron-shaped burn mark there. _Is this some kind of stupid joke? _

The noise of a helicopter rattled in the distance. "It's here," Satsuki said, pausing before the fallen door. "The Mankanshoku and I need to prepare. Meet us on the rooftop in fifteen minutes."

When her sister left, Ryuuko scrambled to dress and slip her shoes on. "Whatever's going on, one thing is certain," she said, aligning her sailor scarf in the mirror. "Sis is definitely hiding something from me...!"

Arriving on the rooftop, Ryuuko found Mako and even Satsuki clad in the blue and white Honnoji sailor fuku. Ryuuko was a little surprised to see Satsuki wearing such, given her old military style—and especially since the last time she saw her in such a uniform was that one time she and Senketsu teamed-up. "Ah, we're all dressed up," Ryuuko said, raising a hand in slight embarrassment to Mako. "But where are we going?"

"I know!" Mako said. "We're going to squat around train stations to engage in chain smoking, rapid texting, and acting like we're still in high school! Right?" Mako obviously held a colorful image in-mind. "Or! Are we gonna make a dance video and upload it to the internet and go viral? Viral!"

Ryuuko squinted her eyes, trying to wrap her head around these bizarre suggestions. Satsuki, ignoring them as such, waited for the helicopter door to slide open before climbing in and greeting Nonon who was at the controls.

"Haa!" Ryuuko yelped, pointing at the former-bandleader. "What is SHE doing here?"

Nonon smirked. "I'm the pilot, silly Lady Ryuuko," she said, jolting the throttle and lifting off—much to the still-grounded Ryuuko's dismay.

"Whoo~" Mako cheered, bounding up into the chopper like a bouncy ball.

"Hey! Wait up," Ryuuko snapped, jumping after them and latching onto the door-side handlebar. The helicopter swerved and she gritted her teeth, fighting to hold on. Mako, taking Ryuuko's other hand, grunted and assisted in pulling her in. Once in side, the door slid closed behind them.

"Alright!" Ryuuko spat, exhaustedly buckling herself in. "Where are we going?!"

"Oh, you'll know when we get there," Nonon explained, lazily handling the controls. "Hang on, we'll be experiencing turbulence. And maybe some leaks."

Ryuuko and Mako's heads banged back against the seat as the helicopter spun around, disobeyed the laws of aerodynamics, and zoomed onwards at mach speed.

"Activating amphibious mode in 3... 2... 1," Nonon chortled, slamming a lever on her dash controls.

Satsuki calmly stared out the window—almost as if she were taking a leisurely plane flight to some tropical getaway.

The helicopter began to groan and change—its tail folding in on itself, its under-skies flattening into fins, and its overhead blades tearing in half and repositioning themselves in the front as rotors. This caused them to instantly drop from the sky.

"Ahh!" Ryuuko yelled, watching them fall towards the deep blue below.

"Emergency dive!" Mako exclaimed.

And so they did, crashing into the water with a hull-splattering splash. Ryuuko clenched her fists and stared out her side window as startled fish swam past in waves.

"Pressurizing," Nonon said, flipping some switches. "Leveling out... Past the halfway point! We'll be arriving at Nudist Beach in three minutes, Lady Satsuki."

"N-Nudist Beach?" Ryuuko stuttered.

"That's right," Satsuki said, maintaining a knowing gaze. "It's time for your check-up."

"What? Why?"

"Because it's time for your check-up." She wasn't going to say anything else on the matter. And that was that.

Ryuuko growled, annoyed.

Emerging from the depths, the amphibious helicopter folded its under-skies back out—their outsides now encased with flotation-worthy bulkiness—and floated further into Nudist Beach's docking bay.

"Ooooahh," Mako sighed in awe, jumping about the pit to look out ALL windows. "This sure brings back memories, doesn't it Ryuuko?"

"Hm," Ryuuko emitted. "Yeah." She folded her arms and sweated lightly. _What's going on with this place now?_ she wondered, eyeing the hideout's renewed docks and expanded tunnels. _Sis, just what are you up to? Why did you bring me here? _

Of course, Ryuuko considered that this renewed activity had something to do with the threat of life fibers returning to Earth one day, just as her mother had threatened, but still, she thought all the counter military operations—including Honnoji Academy, which had sunk to the bottom of Tokyo Bay—had been discontinued. By the look of things, however, Nudist Beach was growing.

_Who's paying for all this?_ Ryuuko wondered.

As if Satsuki could hear her sister's thoughts, she turned to Ryuuko. "Hm. Surprised? After Revocs' market shares bottomed-out, I restructered and rebranded it as a technical textile corporation," Satsuki explained and paused. "And sold two-thirds of it at a loss to the Takarada Conglomerate. This strategy renewed the holdings' public image, recouped its immense pre-COVERS-scandal value, and bolstered Takarada's personal funding of Nudist Beach's continued operations... as you can see."

Ryuuko nodded her head, miraculously understanding her sister's business-babble. "So basically," she said, "you made a massive donation to the cause."

Satsuki turned away. "You could say that. But it was simply a sound business decision... and dead weight off my back."

"Man... you're certainly something." Ryuuko wasn't sure if she could ever get into business, but if she ever wanted to, she knew she could leave the foundings of it to her sis.

Docking their amphibious transforming helicopter, the four girls climbed out and entered the hideout's main passageway, where they made their way past several security-locked doors before arriving in the primary research lab.

Overwhelmed by all the rows of clear cubicles stretching beyond—housing teams of working scientists in each—Ryuuko stopped in the middle as the other girls stepped forward.

"What's the hold up?" Nonon asked. "Getting cold feet?"

"No, it's just... completely different," Ryuuko said. "From how it was last time."

"Yes!" Mako agreed. "But even so, it's still filled with the spirit of Nudist Beach! Hard-working, busy people! Zwiiii~" She shielded her eyes so she could peer into the blue-shining distance. "Just look at all those clean white lab coats... There's so many inside here, I think I can somehow whiff their combined bleach emissions!"

There was a splash off to the right, causing both Ryuuko and Mako to jump. Seemingly out from the floor rose Mikisugi, dripping wet, proudly naked, and bedazzling them sightless with his private areas' self-censoring-magenta-lens-flare. "If it's bleach you're huffing, it's not the lab coats," he said, slowly running his fingers through his slick hair and glamour-posing. "It's Nudist Beach's newest research division."

"WHERE the crap did you pop up from?!" Ryuko yelled, red-faced and bewildered.

"The swimming pool. The edge is right over there."

"Why is there a swimming pool in a research lab?!"

"For research. Obviously."

"Urgh," Ryuuko groaned, holding her forehead. "What is even going on here?"

"You're here for your check-up," Satsuki said.

"Yes yes, you've been saying that, Sis!"

Towel-drying off, Mikisugi slipped a white lab coat on. "Are the nighttime symptoms still the same?" he asked.

"As of last night, they are," Satsuki answered. "You'll be getting her ready, correct? I'd like to discuss last time's scans with Inumuta."

"Huh? Huuh? Ready for what?!" Ryuuko demanded in exasperation, facing a quiet Nonon and then a fidgety Mako. "Hey! What are you guys keeping so clammed-up about?"

"Figure it out already!" Nonon snapped. "This is about your recent behavior. Really! Don't act so surprised about it."

"But... this was supposed to be a date...!"

"Ok then," Mikisugi said, grabbing Ryuuko from behind, "time for your full-body scan, then... Don't worry, I'll be gentle." He lifted the betrayed girl up onto his shoulder.

"Come on!" Ryuuko yelled, flailing her fists at them furiously. "I know I was acting a little crazy, but this is... Gr! There's no need to trick me like this, just tell me what's the deal!"

"Don't worry, Ryuuko!" Mako chirped. "When this is all done, we can have dinner together! The new cafeteria has lotsa food on a conveyor belt that goes round-and-round! I'll show you!"

"Wait, Mako... you've been here lately?"

She covered her mouth. "Oops!"

"That's enough," Satsuki said, turning to Mikisugi with a neck-snapping gaze. "Do it now."

"C'mon now!" Ryuuko blurted, "I still haven't—" She felt a hundred needles in her back. And then a deep sleep.


	2. My Castle Town

**SUPER SHORT CHAPTER THIS TIME AS PUNISHMENT for only giving me 2 reviews—just kidding, I actually didn't split them right. But chapter 3 is longer. 8')  
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Ryuuko found herself wearing Senkentsu in the middle of that scramble crosswalk. Overhead, the dull gray air was thick and heavy—with the unbearable haziness of summer—but as she watched it, waiting for something to happen, the sky opened up and poured down marble-sized droplets. Wide-eyed, Ryuuko held her hands out and collected them in her palms, her lips moving and saying something to Senketsu. He said something, too. Something she couldn't hear.

"What's that, Senketsu?" she asked, lowering her gaze to him. And then she saw it: his color running out and down her legs, collecting in a pool of blood at her feet. As she fumbled to collect his color-bleed, his fabric turned chalk white in her palms, and as she frenetically peeled him off to hold what was left of him, he disintegrated into dust. Dust which slipped through her arms and fingertips.

With an inward cry, she screamed his name—her fingers twitching over the blood, the chalk, and the droplets splattered at her feet.

Inside her head, she would always be screaming his name.

Jolting awake, Ryuuko found herself lying on her back in a dark room twitching with glimmers of light. A green-glowing ring pulsed overhead. Dim light flickered from behind. Stretching her neck around to scan her surroundings, she saw screens showing video of herself being dragged down the Kiryuin mansion hall, half-naked, wriggling and seemingly yammering on to her taxed older sister's assistance. The other screens revealed similar scenes: video of Ryuuko with several combs impossibly tangled in her hair, of herself bathing in the laundry room sink, and then of her trying to drink fabric softener out from the lid like a shot glass—at least until being suppressed by Satsuki. They were all scenes that Ryuuko had no recollection of whatsoever.

A chair swiveled sideways in front of the center video screen. "After your first few... sleep-walking incidents, Lady Satsuki had me set up video and data feeds," Inumuta said, his glasses glowing in the screen light. "You might not agree, but she's withholding information for your sake."

Ryuuko breathed sharply. "For my sake?" she asked. "Why?"

"For your mental health."

"Are you... are you saying I've lost my mind?" Ryuuko gulped and began to sweat. Could these videos be the product of some kind of computer generated simulation? But why? They looked so real. No—there was no escaping the fact. They were real.

"Hm. In a way, I suppose." Inumuta began typing. "All I can say for now is that your brain is partitioned." He tapped a key and a black and grey digitized brain-scan appeared on a screen. "During normal sleep, the brain is lit like this." He clicked and tan spots appeared on-image. "When dreaming, even more so, like this." A patchwork of tan and dull pink spots took over. "And then, this is your brain during one of your sleep-walking episodes." The colors went solid.

Ryuuko shot up and jumped off the exam table. "I don't understand what any of this means! What are you trying to tell me?" She looked around. "I need terms even an idiot can understand... Where's my doctor?!"

Walking in from the darkest end, Satsuki appeared and filled the room's expanse with her light. "Mikisugi?" she asked. "He's only the anesthesiologist. Well... he also prepared the examination."

Feeling chilled, Ryuuko looked down and realized she was wearing a paper gown. "S...Senketsu-Two!" she gasped, angrily realizing the sailor fuku was gone. "Where is he—it? Wait." She eyed the video screens and clenched a fist. "This is all... about him, isn't it?" Her fist tightened until it quivered. "I went crazy, and now I pretend to be Senketsu in order to live out his ill-fated life in delusional, sleep-induced bouts! That's it! Isn't it?!" She nearly tore off her gown. "Don't spare my feelings on this. I want the truth! And if you won't tell me it, I'll consider every insane possibility as truth until you do!"

Inumuta stared at Satsuki, who had folded her arms and closed her eyes. "Alright then," Satsuki said. "The Manshoukou was correct in saying..." She glanced up and nearly shot lasers out of her eyes. "That Senketsu is still alive... inside of you!"

Ryuuko choked, struck speechless by this impossible revelation.

"It's been hard to prove, due to Senketsu's ongoing refusal to communicate, but today's tests are conclusive," Inumuta said, typing on his console and bringing up an 8-bit graph containing an outline of Ryuuko's body. A red line shot through it vertically. "At one point or another, you either absorbed one of Senketsu's banshi or, presumably, had a spare of your own and threw it to him as a life line, so to speak. Life Fiber specimens are lacking these days, save for when we've studied you, so we're unsure how fiber connections work in regards to such scenarios."

"Studied... me?" Ryuuko repeated incredulously. "Still... alive?"

"Go ahead," Satsuki said, directing her words at Inumuta. "Tell her everything. She deserves to know."

Inumuta pushed up his glasses. "Right... Then I'll begin. How do I say it... This so-called life fiber hibernation scenario... No such instance has been noted in other Life Fiber wearers. It's assumed that this is because of your unique inherited abilities, markedly, your dormant Fiber Lost absorption trait. This recessive trait," he said, ominously making eye-contact with Ryuuko, "was yours, initially. And one inherited from your mother, Ragyo. As we discovered from the records we obtained, it was a coveted ability she'd been searching for, opposite to her Marionette Threads, and the one she'd originally expected your sister to manifest."

Ryuuko stood still, unwilling to believe this contradictory information. "What are you going on about, I can't do the Fiber Lost... That was... Senketsu's thing," she said. "It was all him."

"No," Satsuki said. "Father imbued Senketsu with your DNA. That is what made Senketsu special."

"But," Ryuuko said, bringing her head down, her mind swirling with these impossibilities, "I obviously can't do the Fiber Lost alone! It's not possible. I needed Senketsu, it was impossible to save everyone without him! If I could've fought without him, I would've, and he wouldn't have had to sacrifice so much." She flexed her fingers, remembering him slipping through. "And I could've held onto him longer...!"

"Idiot," a squeaky voice said, disclosing Nonon's apparent eavesdropping. "Haven't you been listening? You DID hold onto him. You've been holding onto him all along!"

"But when?" Ryuuko continued gazing into her fingers, her heart telling her to latch onto this heart-skipping news, but her mind reminding her about the inevitable pain of hope. "When... then? It couldn't have been at the very end. There was nothing left of him for me to grab onto."

Once again, Satsuki recalled the memory of Ryuuko on that rooftop long ago—and the tiny red scrap Ryuuko had unconsciously grabbed for. It was just a small piece, barely the size of coin and easily tucked under the girl's fingers. Understandably, Satsuki was always fascinated by how such a little scrap enabled Senketsu to be salvaged. _Even though all his fibers had been cut,_ Satsuki thought critically, _he was able to be repaired, and without any expert sewing skills. And then the instances where she'd manipulated his threads or sacrificed pieces before, only for him to regenerate nearly instantly... We wrote it all off as the abilities of a Kamui, but..._

Ryuuko huffed crossly, scratching her head as she digested this nonsense. "Well if he's still alive," she said, "then why," she gritted her teeth, "WHY IS HE HIDING FROM ME?!" Her fists quivered in anger. "Yeah, that bastard might only come out at night when I'm not awake, but what the actual hell! Couldn't he have at least left me a note? A sign?! Thinking about it is starting to really piss me off!"

In solemn agreement, Satsuki recalled the nights she'd met Senketsu: all his desperate attempts at pretending to be Ryuuko, his obviousness, and his strained silence whenever she or anyone else asked him about it.

"Regarding all that, there's a way to find out," Inumuta said. "By asking him."

Knowing their past attempts failed, Ryuuko glared at him. "How?"

With a few strokes of the console keyboard, the wall on the opposite side of the room hissed open and revealed a massive spire atop a see-through stage of gears—a giant reel situated at the bottom. "By pulling him out." A full-body harness popped from the spire. "This was developed to do as such."

Ryuuko stepped up to it in awe. "So this thing," she began, "can pull Senketsu out of me?"

"It can." Inumuta stood up out of his chair. "But there's also an 80% chance that it will fail, either by yanking all your life fibers out in the process or winding his line too short—both actions which are speculated to kill him."

Ryuuko's eyes widened.

"Hey... Hey now," Nonon spoke up, perturbed, "I thought this thing was the product of everyone's efforts. Can't it do better than that?"

Satsuki stepped forward. "For now, this is the extent of our efforts," she said, taking her little sister's side. "It has never been tested." She put a hand on Ryuuko's crestfallen head. "I won't judge you. Take your time deciding... There's no rush. You can think about it as long as you like. And in the meantime, we can continue trying to communicate with Senketsu."

"No," Ryuuko muttered. "Don't coddle me. I already know my answer."

Everyone stared at her.

"I won't do it," she said. "I'm never taking him off again. Or out."

"...Understood," Inumuta said. "Though it's highly unlikely we'll find any other life fibers left on earth, we'll continue our search for test subjects. We'll collect data. And maybe one day... we can improve those—"

"—Ergh!" With a loud grunt, Ryuuko's hands rose up and she began to tremble. "—What the hell? Can't... move!" she blurted, apparently unable to control them. Her fingers pulled straight and then, with an open-handed form, jabbed the sides of her neck. She dropped to the floor. Fainted.

"Ryuuko!" Satsuki gasped, reaching for her fallen body.

Ryuuko's eyes opened immediately and Satsuki stopped. "Little sister?" Satsuki asked.

Ryuuko sat up as if nothing had happened. "I'm sorry," she said. "But please... Pull me from Ryuuko's body. There's not much time left."

"Senketsu."


	3. Black Cat Tango

Doubly exhausted, Ryuuko opened her eyes and once again inexplicably found herself lying on her back in a dark room. "Am I just going to keep waking up like this?" she wondered aloud, standing up with a groan. "Urk..." As soon as she stood, however, her eyes adjusted to the darkness and recognized where she was. Piles of gray cloth. Dust wafting at her heels. "What am I... doing here?" she asked herself, recognizing this as the burned-out basement beneath her old house's ruins. Coming here now after everything... Was it because this is where she'd first met _him_? "Senketsu..."

As if answering, Senketsu's voice let out a muffled grunt of pain, one that echoed from far away.

Ryuuko jolted at this response. "Senketsu!" she screamed, weaving through the piles. "Where are you?!" She darted and bounded over them, rushing through a repeating landscape which never seemed to end. Something was physically wrong with this space, this she knew, and so she stopped, her ears then throbbing as she heard her own voice booming down at her.

"I'm done with you," her far-off words stung with hateful disinterest: "I'm never putting you on again."

Senketsu continued crying in anguish: "Ryuuko...!"

"No!" Ryuuko spat, remembering those terrible words from the past. "Don't listen to me! Don't listen to those stupid things I said back then, they're not true—" She held her ears as her doppelganger's booming voice raised to a demonic roar:

"—Just looking at you pisses me off! Cause we're both the same breed of MONSTER. That's right, I'm not human. I'll be fused with Life Fibers until the day I die! When I look at you, I get so annoyed! At my own stupidity!"

"Ryuuko!"

"If I've made my point, don't cling to me anymore."

"But... you are my reason for living!"

Ryuuko held up her fists, bracing for more of her own hatred, but then unwinding when she noticed what Senketsu had just said. "Reason... for living?" she repeated to herself, unfamiliar with these words.

"Senketsu. You and I need to become stronger." Her disembodied voice floated back, overflowing with calm this time. "No, we _can_ become even stronger. If we're together."

"Yes," Senketsu agreed restrainedly, with yearning. "After all, I'm your precious only set..."

"No, that's not what you are."

"Hm?"

"You're my friend."

"Ah," Senketsu answered, contented. "Your blood has been salty lately. But ever since then, it's been sweet. Ryuuko is... always cute. And always growing, every day. Outgrowing me. Right... That's just how it is. Even if I wish it, I can't be the one to always protect her." He sighed pathetically. "I am no good."

Ryuuko's face went red from Senketsu's confession. "That's not true!" she yelled, falling to her knees and digging through the nearest scrap pile. "Where are you?! Answer me. Talk to me!"

"In the end, all I can do is pointlessly nag you about your BMI... Or, when I'm on the hanger at night, sleeplessly watch, wondering what I'll do with myself if I ever stop fitting you... This sort of selfish behavior." His voice hesitated. "Is the kind that led me to hurt you on the day we first met." The shame in his voice knocked Ryuuko back like an aftershock "I have done nothing but force myself on you ever since then... I caused you unnecessary pain because of it! You were correct in saying... People are people. Clothes are clothes. I am just clothing. I have so many regrets now. But for one thing, I am glad... That I was fortunate enough to have been made for your sake. Because this world is yours, Ryuuko. All of it, entirely. Absolutely, forever. At least, that's how I've always felt. Even if I am... only just clothing."

"You've got it all so wrong!" Ryuuko yelled; "Stop twisting my absurd words around! The day I met you was the day I was looking for you! Didn't you just hear me from before? I said you're my friend!" She stood back up, eyes spilling with tears. "You are seriously a depressing jerk! If you're that goddamned hung-up on it, I can cut-out all the greasy foods! I can force myself into you, even if I don't fit, and make us even! You're still here, aren't you?" Her tears ran down in long succession. "So stop acting like this is the end for you! Senketsu... stay with me! I need you!"

"I refuse. To see her cry over me anymore," Senketsu went on, his voice fading in and out—and revealing that he had never heard her to begin with. "That truth is, I am just a monster, a parasite feeding on Ryuuko and weakening her mind over time... A presumptuous rag that has overstepped its bounds! I have no right to still be here, clinging to her. Preying on her. No more. I will free her from the burden of monsters. She deserves to be human... Once and for all." A loud snap sounded above and Ryuuko looked up, where she discovered Senketsu's eye was the ceiling above. Unraveling. Pulling apart at a destructive speed and by a single red thread. By now, only the pupil remained, the rest having already dissolved into the abyss.

"No, no!" Ryuuko cried, sprinting forward. "Who the hell," she asserted, racing to reach the retreating distance, "said you could make such a stupid decision for me?!" Both dust and cloth kicked-up in her wake, and as she ran for the ever-receding distance, she began grabbing the cloth that kicked-up underfoot and tying it all together into a makeshift line. "So this crazy place runs on crazy logic? Good! Then let's get crazy," she hissed, pressing her forefinger against her teeth and then clamping down, biting off her fingertip. Blood sprayed out, and as her dismembered digit flew upwards from the pressure, it absorbed the blood rain and began taking on the form of a large, malleable red mass. "Scissor blade!" she commanded, its form shining brilliantly and then changing—changing into that familiar red weapon. It floated down and Ryuuko jumped up, grabbed its handle, and then knotted it to her makeshift line. "My last effort!" she announced in her ascent, only reaching the halfway point before falling back down again. "Handmade!" she called out her move, as if naming it with big red letters, "Clothing-Hook-Shot!" She lanced the blade upwards, piercing the big unraveling thread and severing it. With an insane grunt, she wrapped her arm in the dangling clothesline, caught herself along with sliding propulsion, and then swung herself back upwards.

Yelling, she let her voice loose, her body flying towards Senketsu's eye and then right through it—her left arm instinctively lashing out through the void and snatching the severed thread. "COME HERE," she said.

"R-Ryuuko!" Senketsu gasped fearfully, finally hearing her voice.

"Dumbass!" She could feel her heart beating in her ears. "Did I SAY you could leave me?!" She wrapped her pinky around the thread and pulled it close. "Did I SAY you were some murder weapon, some uniform I needed to junk after coming home from the fight? Well! Maybe I did once or twice... But I still have a whole lot more to say to you! And you better sit your ass down, because it's gonna take a whole lifetime to express it! I said I needed you! I...!" Yelling angrily at her inability to say the rest, she held on—even though she became aware of the fact that she was now reeling through the void so fast, her guts were attempting to exit through her throat.

Reality returned and Ryuuko's eyes snapped open, her line of vision greyed-out as she found her herself spinning around, strapped to the winding machine's spire, and revving at hundreds of kilometers an hour. The centrifugal force had already worked away at her stomach, but as if her unconscious actions had miraculously taken place in real life, she found her arm held high above both her head and the spire—her pinky still wrapped around the severed thread from her dream. Somehow, she had managed to stop the winding from going any further. Consequently, keeping the thread on her finger was friction-burning through her skin.

"Then break it!" Satsuki screamed in answer to an unheard statement, her composure slipping in a rare instance. "Bring me a sword!"

An intercom bleeped and Nonon shouted from every speaker: "Monkey, Froggy, wherever you are, I said get down here!"

Ryuuko lost her lunch against gravity as the machine slowed ever so slightly and shifted the force. She groaned alongside the screeching gears.

"I've managed to re-lock the clamp as a buffer," Inumuta said, hastily typing at the controls. "Despite the machine's failure, it has to be controlled gradually. If this goes on any longer, though, there will be internal hemorrhaging."

"Then!" Satsuki went on, "Pull the power!"

"I'm afraid... that will disengage the clamp..."

Satsuki wrenched her face dementedly and then roared: "DAMN IT! WHERE IS THAT HRGHREGLE SWORD?"

Nonon and Inumuta cowered and rushed their tasks, both confounded by the lengths of madness that overcame Satsuki whenever her little sister's well-being was involved.

Arriving as called, Gamagori broke through the wall, bringing Mako and Sanageyama behind him.

"Ryuuko!" Mako cried, waving her arms. "How's Senketsu? How's it hanging?!"

"NOT," Ryuuko answered, her voice distorted by her momentum, "GOOD!"

Mako observed the reel, strung to the spire, grinding at a standstill on the machine's base. "Ah, is this what came out of Ryuuko?" she asked, wobbling her head while watching it, "it's like a super big bobbin!" She frowned in concern. "But it looks like it over-winded a little, and it's a bit uneven..."

"WHAT?"

She held a thumb up to Ryuuko and winked. "Just needs to back-up a couple hundred meters!"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

Sanegeyama held a sheathed sword at arm's length. "Should I?" he asked Satsuki, offering it to her all the same.

Satsuki stepped forward and it took it. Unsheathing it, she pointed the blade at the machine. "For now, I'll handle this," she said, staring up at her little sister. "LISTEN UP," she yelled. "You've got EIGHTY SECONDS to SAVE SENKETSU."

Inumuta watched an on-screen graph of Ryuuko's body flash red, limb-first, and then said: "She's already hemorrhaging."

"DAMNIT," Ryuuko bellowed, tensing her muscles further in hopes of holding that issue off; for now, she was forced to switch hands as the thread finally flossed clear through her pinky's skin and bone: "UWRAAAAAA—" the finger flew off with ten-fold the expected pain and blood but remained attached this time by a single life fiber, "—don't hold your breath, I'll do it in TWENTY," she grunted, gritting her teeth as she tied Senketsu's thread back to hers. Closing her eyes, she focused on her inner fiber and its woven form running through her every vein and organ. Her heart jumped steadily in her chest and her blood vessels continued streaming, all until the gears behind her eyes scraped to a stop and began moving in reverse. Her heart pumped in reverse, her blood vessels went backwards, and her fiber retreated into her skin, tugging the tied-on end along with it.

Mako's mouth dropped as the bobbin reel went against its automatic direction and unwounded with motor-burning resistance. "It's working," she exclaimed.

"Lady Satsuki," Gamagori said, "Please count on me for this!"

Satsuki understood his thoughts and lowered her sword. "Inumuta," she said.

"Yes," Inumuta answered, projecting an image of the machine's malfunctioning break clamp for Gamagori to see. "It needs to be held in place as it'll release when the power cuts."

Stomping onto the machine, Gamagori held his giant hands out and then forced them upon the base of the spinning spire, ducking as Ryuuko's flailing legs threatened to kick him in the face. "GHHHHHHR," he groaned, creating sparks as he strangled the it.

Mako ran up beside him and glanced upwards, "Ryuuko!" she called, cupping her hands around her mouth. "I think you pulled enough back in already!"

"RIGHT!" Ryuuko answered, barring her teeth, biting the thread, and ripping it. With a loud snap, she disconnected from the bobbin thread and began revolving at an even crazier speed.

"What's going on?!" Nonon demanded, getting angry for Satsuki.

"I powered it off, but it's still carrying huge momentum," Inumuta said intensely. "And with the loss of the thread tension, it severely rebounded. This is no good... she's experiencing rapid arterial failure."

No longer holding back, Satsuki charged the spire and stabbed her sword into it, screaming alongside Gamagori as they both put their backs into halting the spin. Sanageyama, unable to stand by and watch anymore, unsheathed his second sword and charged the spire as well, supporting and mirroring Satsuki on the opposite side.

"Little sister!" Satsuki said, wedging the sword diagonally, "hang on!"

"N...eragh!" Ryuuko answered, gripping her bar harness. "No, this is—" she tore it off with her bare hands and flung upwards, flipping and crushing a crater into the ceiling where she landed feet-first, the machine's energy still driving upon her, "—it's... no big deal!" She closed her eyes and endured the power tearing away at her.

Stopping what they were doing, they all looked up and watched, wide-eyed, as she resisted the machine's force.

"Senketsu," Ryuuko said, re-opening her eyes and watching the bobbin reel he was winding around on. "You..." she dropped from the ceiling and then flew forward, power-kicking the reel into the back wall, "—you IDIOT," she yelled, watching the reel smash apart. Tangling from the impact, Senketsu's threads merged— in a puff of smoke—and wove him back into his former sailor uniform self. She continued rushing at him.

"R...Ryuuko!" Senketsu answered, backing into a corner as she closed-in. Panicking as she wasn't slowing down, he attempted a retreat, but then she slammed her palms on the wall behind him, pinning him by his cuffs.

"Hey," she murmured through clenched teeth. "Where do you think you're going? I didn't finish what I was saying earlier..."

Senketsu gulped loudly, his eye glistening as he witnessed her understated rage up-close. "Where you ask? With you," he replied, trying to calm her down. "Yes, I'll quietly be your Sunday best again. Or stay in your closet, next to your coats, if that's what you want. Because there's no where else I'd rather go." He stopped as she fought to catch her labored breath. "I'm sorry, Ryuuko. While protecting you, I forgot. That you can protect yourself, and anything you put your heart and mind into. I should have believed in you."

Ryuuko loosened her hold on him and exhaled sharply. "I don't want you to quietly do anything anymore," she said. "No, what I want is to hear your every annoying complaint and smartass comment. I want you to try to talk me out of reckless stuff whenever I wanna do it, but then recklessly support me whenever I still wanna do it. Because that's the kind of guy you are. Even if you're just clothing. Even if people are people. Even if I'm a... people." She blinked self-consciously. "Because! Clothing are people too! And if they tried hard enough, people could be clothing as well!"

"You're saying absurd things again."

"And they're going to get even more absurd!" Ryuuko huffed to compose herself—but then turned red instead. "That is, what I was saying before..." She clenched her eyes shut. "I-I love you!" she spat.

And everybody sucked air in unison, Ryuuko's declaration paralyzing the entire room—especially the winding machine, which locked into place.

There was not a more fitting response. Not to a love confession to a sailor fuku.


	4. Breathless

**Omg you people are awesome, please accept this chapter.**

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"_I-I love you!"_

Senketsu went silent, unsure if Ryuuko meant it the way he wished it sounded. After all, his selfishness often caused him to read into her words too much. And her words, which he'd dwell upon in quiet moments, lead him across mysterious ideas concerning such; love.

Love, as Senketsu learned, wasn't strictly human, but remained the lawful domain of only the greatest and most empowered humans. All lesser beings; denied. He understood that from the beginning. He knew it, but... Recounting Ryuuko's claims of him being more than a friend to her, or how his existence was the most important thing in her life proved, for him, undeniably enjoyable. At least, at first it did, until his frequent obsessing warped into a confirmation of his pathetically needy reality. Human words didn't apply to him. Nothing mattered but her wearing him. But that was fine. Her happiness was his. Maybe, he was even made to feel this way. "I have always loved you, Ryuuko," he confessed in turn, alarmed by his bravery and hastily giving a precautionary add-on: "Anyone who meets you would feel the same way. Yes... I am sure of it! All who have, do. Because you are a good friend." He might as well have patted her on the head while he was at it.

Ryuuko clenched her teeth and her vast and unspeakable rage returned—ten-fold. "You... YOU." She forced him down. "You clueless BASTARD! Are you really so stupid, or are you just making fun of me, huh?! HUH?!" She unzipped him, his eye widening in shock. "If that's the case, then I'll show you how it feels to be played around with!"

"W-wait!"

"I'm not waiting!" She forced him on her, and as he tried shaking away, she slipped her arm through his sleeve and held it there, grunting angrily. "Come on, PUT IT IN!"

"Ah! Noooo~"

"Yes, hnng!"

"I-it's too tight!"

"Then do it harder and stretch it out!"

"AH! My stitching popped!"

"Idiot! Don't come apart so easily!"

Satsuki watched in terror, the color draining from her face and leaving nothing behind but her eyebrows and eye whites.

"No matter how objectively one looks at it," Inumuta said, "it appears she's assaulting him."

Nonon looked on in interest. "Wow, what is even going on?" she asked.

They all stood by and rubbernecked, indifferent to Senketsu's cries.

"Not sure," Sanageyama commented, "these sort of things are beyond me. Guess girls only care about clothes, huh..."

"Little sister," Satsuki whispered, "so the pain you were in... was one of unfulfilled love?" Quivering, she stared down at her fingers. "Furthermore. At the hands of a kamui?" She froze once again, unable to process such a freakish truth.

Ryuuko squeezed Senketsu on fully, and with a triumphant cry, sat up and caressed her shoulders. "It's a tight fit," she declared, "but I can still wear you! UWAHAHA." She dissolved into maniacal laughter, all while Senketsu cried sparkling tears of blushful amazement.

"She's... she's so proud of herself," Gamagori muttered.

"All women are," Mako said, raising a finger, "once they find they can still fit their old sailor uniform!"

Standing up, Ryuuko faced her audience—the ones who'd attempted separating her from Senketsu forever—and placed a hand on his skirt. "Heh! Are you assholes shocked?" she yelled, pulling a confident smirk. "Then prepare yourselves! I thought I made it clear before, but I'm saying it again. Right here, right now." She lowered her eyes at them in challenge. "I'm never taking Senketsu off again." She gazed down at her uniform and waited for him to comment. But he didn't. "Senketsu?"

"Y...yes?" he managed to say. "W... what is it?"

She scoffed. "Is that all you have to say to me?! Well whatever." She laughed shortly. "I want to wear you forever so," she stretched her arms up over her head and took a deep breath, "let's tie the knot... I'm down with it. Marriage. And all."

The room filled with smoke as everybody's mind simultaneously imploded. For, not only was this an offhanded marriage proposal from a young woman to her sailor fuku—it was an offhanded marriage proposal mere moments after her confession.

Senketsu's eye watered, then gushing like a broken faucet. "Y-your father wouldn't want this!" he cried, sobbing endlessly.

She was markedly insulted. "Yeah, well! He's DEAD."

"Ryuuko!"

"And if he's still got a problem, he can just blame himself! What kind of idiot makes his daughter a perverted uniform like you?! You got me half-naked half the time, obviously I'd get confused! Geez!" She roughly tugged his neckline and scowled at his ongoing bawling. "STOP THAT AND SAY SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE DAMN IT."

"T...there's absolutely no way I could make you happy! At least, not in the way a man could!"

"Like that matters! Love comes in different forms! We'll figure something out!"

"It's wrong! Please consider all your options! Human options!"

"You know what? I don't need a piece of clothing telling me I'm messed-up for proposing to a piece of clothing!"

"Yes you do!"

Ryuuko continued scowling, but then pouted and drooped her shoulders. "Honestly. Is it really so detestable that it makes you cry?"

"No! It's not detestable to me in the slightest! In truth," he went on, "I'm crying because this is the happiest day of my life! Uwuu~" A pool of tears flowed past their feet as he continued weeping.

"Ergah, then SAY YES you sopping bath rug! Shit! If you're happy, stop crying! You're going to make me catch a cold!"

"Y-yes!" He sniffled.

"Ok then!" She regained her enthusiasm. "Let's get hitched!"

"W-wait a minute! No!"

Satsuki clicked a heel forward, sword in hand, and pulled her little sister's attention away from her new boyfriend. "Ryuuko!" she called harshly, in obvious confrontation. "Is this what you really want?! Will this truly make you happy?!"

Concluding a fight was in order, Ryuuko smirked with strengthened resolve. "Hell yeah!" she declared, fist raised.

Satsuki stared her down.

And Ryuuko stared back.

Never averting her eyes, Satsuki pulled out her cellphone, dialed, and then spoke: "Soroi. Inform the ateliers that I'm commissioning bridal wear suitable for my little sister. Yes. All of them. And book the Urakami Cathedral for the soonest date possible. Right, a traditional photo shoot beforehand. A kimono fitting tomorrow? Fine. While you're at it, have a newlywed cottage constructed on our estate's southwest plot. Yes, bulldoze the gazebo garden."

"NO, NOT THE GAZEBO GARDEN," Mako cried, unable to lose such a magical place.

Ryuuko raised a hand wearily. "H-hold on a moment," she said, "there's no need for such drastic measures..."

Satsuki's eyes bulged and her eyebrows increased a whole centimeter. "UNDERSTAND THIS, MARRIAGE IS DRASTIC," she bellowed, striking her sister down with her blinding aura: "if you're not ready to take such drastic measures, you don't have the willpower or vision for marriage!"

"Everything is willpower and vision with you..."

Satsuki closed her phone. "Nonon! Summon the former presidents of the Patisserie, Cooking, and Flower Arrangement Clubs!"

"Of course, Lady Satsuki," Nonon said, "but I must inform you that the first two are still undergoing their final training in France, as is the latter in Kyoto."

"Prioritize their graduations."

"Will do!"

"The rest of you, begin planning invitations, transportation, seating arrangements, reception details, and event security!"

"Yes, Lady Satsuki!" Inumuta, Gamagori, and Sanageyama shouted in unison, so hyped-up, they might as well have been leaving on a raid.

"I'm helping too!" Mako volunteered, jumping, stopping, and then ruffling her hair around. "Wait! I've gotta tell my family the big news! Yes, they'll be so happy for Ryuuko!" She dashed off in a cartoonish blur.

Ryuuko's still-raised hand trembled. "H-hey, Senketsu," she said anxiously, "let's elope..."

"Impossible," Senketsu answered. "Doing so would deeply hurt your sister. And I know you care too much."

"Not when she's gathering the whole circus just to PUNISH me."

"This is untrue. She is supporting you in the only way she knows how."

"By throwing money and underlings around... Ah. I guess you're right." Ryuuko scratched the back of her head. "I really missed having your insight."

Senketsu's tears dried—replaced by a glowing blush. "Other than that, are you sure about this?"

"Hey. What the hell did we go through just now? Shouldn't you know my true feelings already?" She glanced away, embarrassed. "That place inside my mind... What was it like there for you? I mean. What did you see?"

"Hmm... Space. And you. Floating far away from me, yelling unintelligibly."

"Uh. That's... different." She sweated. "For me... I got the place where we first met. Your flashbacks. And full internal monologue." She crossed her arms. "Actually! That's pretty screwed-up in comparison!"

"It couldn't be helped." Senketsu closed his eye. "It was the reason why I made the rash decision that I did. I was rapidly consuming your mind. And I still fear I may have imbalanced it."

"Hey! My decision isn't imbalanced!"

"I never said it was."

"I know you're thinking it!"

"In any case, the outcome is agreeable."

"So you're ok if it is?!"

"Given the circumstances."

"Geez!" She laughed and dusted off their shoulder. "You're a real shameless guy, you know that?"

"I think it is important to be honest."

"With you, that's never a concern." She patted her stomach. "Ah, I'm starving. Mako told me there was food nearby."

"It's good to see you got your appetite back."

"I thought I gained weight though?"

"No, you've simply matured." He went silent for a moment. "But only slightly."

"Do you want me to wrinkle you?"

An hour later, Senketsu and Ryuuko found themselves ditched at the mansion, with Satsuki and the others running off to continue their outrageous schemes.

Ryuuko opened the door to her room and found the previously destroyed wasteland sparkling clean. Holding her chin, she gasped as she inspected the perfectly-repaired wall—the very wall her sister had smashed her through earlier. "Ah, it's as if none of that bullshit ever happened," she said in wonderment. "I should really be mad at you for reducing me to a sniveling mess, but nah."

"I appreciate it," Senketsu replied.

Standing beside her bed, and yanking the covers back, she proceeded to pull him off. "I'm just glad you were here with me... all along. Even if you were too cruel to let me know." She laid him out on the bed. "You saw all the cute clothes I got, right?"

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Ha!" She rested her hands on her sides and grinned. "Were you jealous?"

"N...n, maybe," he stammered, self-consciously. "Actually... Yes."

Despite her rude confidence, Ryuuko blushed and looked away. "G-good."

"Though it was obvious you were assisted in picking them out."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Turning off the lights, she jumped into bed wearing nothing but her socks and panties.

"Ryuuko, you forgot to hang me up." Senketsu started to sweat as she scooted beside him.

"I didn't forget anything."

"You forgot. I will wrinkle."

She emitted a groan of annoyance. "Are you for real?"

"If I am wrinkled, I will be too disheveled for you to wear in the morning. And tomorrow is a busy day."

"Shut up! I'll wrinkle you all I want!"

"Ryuuko, please."

"Grrr." She turned on the bedside lamp and jumped from the covers. Grabbing a pillow, she took hold of Senketsu and began shoving it inside him.

"AHH! AHHHHH," he yelled in horror, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"Ugh! Shut up! Hold still!" she yelled back.

"I AM NOT A PILLOW CASE."

"Goddamn it, calm down! Trust me! I'm ensuring you don't wrinkle!" She slapped him against the bed a few times and lodged the pillow firmly in place. "There." She turned him around, right-side up, and stared at his bloated form. "Senketsu Body Pillow!" Red letters appeared on screen, announcing his new evolution.

He stared at her with grief-filled speechlessness. "I feel violated," he said at last.

"Oh huuh?"

"But also, strangely comfortable..."

With a huff, she turned off the lamp and leaped into bed. Adjusting the covers, she brought him closer in her arms and breathed deeply. This was it. The first time they were ever alone together like this, in the dark, bodies touching, with their feelings bare.

It was quiet for the longest time, until Senketsu decided to speak again: "I've noticed. Though at rest, your heart rate has been increasing."

It took awhile for her to shake-off her incredulousness. "And yours?" she asked.

"I do not have a heart."

"I guess... this is what I get for bedding an alien..."

"However, I cannot deny that my circulatory system has sped-up."

"Hn... Remember that time you told me," she pushed her face into his, "that you didn't have a face?"

"Y-yes." He gulped. "I thought about it later. Sometimes I do have a face."

She kissed him, locking-on roughly and muffling his stupefied response. "Then, you have a heart. Goodnight," she said, closing her eyes and drifting off.

"R...Ryuuko?" he breathed.

She was out.

For the rest of the night, Senketsu was unable to get any sleep.


	5. SOS

**Fuku is an inherently funny word.**

* * *

With Mako at the helm, spotlights flashed across the big tent and a drum roll thundered, lead by Nonon decked-out in her Symphony Regalia.

"Ladies and gentlemen, pigs and swine!" Satsuki's voice boomed majestically, a spotlight revealing her as the cane-leaning, top-hatted ringleader atop a podium. "Rest your pathetic eyes on the highwire above!" She threw he head back, her long-tailed coat reminiscent of Junketsu shining brightly in the light. "Tonight, my little sister will walk across the heavens! Watch in awe and splendor, you farm-raised beasts in rags!"

The spotlights flashed onto Ryuuko, and with a disgruntled gasp, she found herself standing atop a tightrope, high above the drawling crowd, and dressed in a ridiculously fluffy tutu. "Err... huh! W-what is all this?" she stuttered, struggling to keep balanced. "I can't walk in this, it's puffy and oppressive!" She looked around. "Senketsu?!"

"I am right here," he assured her, and he was, but only in the form of an umbrella—one which she was already inexplicably holding.

"Oh good timing," Ryuuko said, panicking as the band below waltzed through a dramatic fanfare. "I can't even find my feet right now! Let's put you on. You're much more sensible and comfortable to wear."

"I can't."

"Y-you can't what? Hey. Don't jerk me around, I can't do this alone!"

"You're not alone. Use me to balance."

"Forget about balance! I need to wear you!"

"Impossible. I am an umbrella."

"Then stop being an umbrella! You're my precious set!"

"Impossible! An umbrella is an umbrella!"

"What the hell Senketsu? Stop being unreasonable!"

"Impossible. I can't stop being either unreasonable or an umbrella."

She growled furiously. "You! 'Impossible, impossible', is that all you can sa—" she slipped and fell backwards, arms outreached as her eyes peered past the big top above. The crowd shrieked.

"Ryuuko!" Senketsu caught the wire with his hook. "Quick! Climb back up!"

Grunting, she held on tight and pulled herself along, his handle snapping just as she reached the wire. "No!" she spat, reaching for him as he slipped past and plummeted, twirling down through the dark. The spotlights followed as he hit the ground and shattered into pieces. Like glass.

She gasped for air, unable to scream, and then woke up from her stupid dream, her face covered in drool and body slick with sweat. Clawing her face dry, and kicking the covers off, she found herself halfway off the bed and Senketsu on the floor below, staring up at her with a heavily-lidded and half-dead expression.

"M...morning," Senketsu said weakly, still over-stuffed with his pillow.

Ryuuko stretched off the edge and extracted him, holding him close and bringing the covers around them. "Senketsu! You look terrible," she said. "Are you okay?" She pulled the pillow out from his limp, wrinkled self.

"Yes. Sorry... I am not sure why," he said, "but after... what you did last night, I was unable to get any shut-eye."

"What I did?" She frowned, brushing her hand over his wrinkles. "You mean with the pillow?"

"No. The other thing." His consciousness was fading fast. "If it's not too much to ask, in the next life, would you please... continue..." His eye glazed over.

"Next life? Continue?... Hey, hold on. You still there?"

No answer.

"Senketsu!" she yelled, springing off the bed and taking him straight to the laundry room, where she prepped the ironing board for his emergency care. Steam hissed off the iron as she melted away all his wrinkles.

"Ahhh," he sighed, regaining his voice and focus.

"Phew, you're still alive," Ryuuko sighed in relief. "You had me worried there... We should make sure that doesn't happen again!" Her eyes sharpened with purpose as she brought out a spray can.

"Wait. What is that?"

"Starch."

"Starch?!" He flailed. "Stop! Get that away from me!"

"The hell's wrong with you? I'm gonna drop the iron!"

"I dislike the starchy build-up! It stiffens my fibers! Stop!"

"Senketsu! If this isn't done, how are you going to last in bed?!"

He went silent and Ryuuko took this as admission. Iron in one hand and spray can in the other, she sprayed and he began to yell again.

Ryuuko slammed both items aside. "Senketsu," she said, exasperated. "This is a problem. Is it really uncomfortable sleeping with me?"

He quieted down and gazed at her intently. "I think you're misunderstanding something," he said.

"I know, I know!" she interrupted. "Clothing hangs up! People lay down!"

"No. That is not it."

"Then what is it? Huh!"

"How do I explain this." He paused. "My expectations were not met."

"Huuh?" Her mouth fell open.

"I... I was up all night waiting." He sighed nervously, twitching his neck tie. "For you."

"W-wha?" Her face went red. "Seriously? Idiot! You were so nervous and awkward!"

"Of course I was! I..." His fabric perspired with shame. "I have no experience."

"Er." She clenched her teeth and looked backwards, not quite agreeing with him. "Don't be like that, I was afraid I was pressuring you! Even with the... kiss." She coughed. "Regardless, if you wanted something, you should have just taken it! The Senketsu I know never holds back!"

His mouth fell open and he shivered. "Is that what you really think of me?!" His eye brimmed with tears.

"Whoa, I didn't mean it in a bad way!" Her hands hovered over him uncertainly. "Did you always used to cry this easily?..."

"Please understand, I could never consciously overpower you!"

"Consciously?"

"You know how my basic state is!"

"Alright alright, geez! What did you want, anyway?"

"To continue where we were."

"Where we were?"

"Yes. It was pleasant." He tried finding the words. "Like an iron on low." All of a sudden, he was like some naive underclassman.

"Huh. Wait. So basically." She pulled him off the board. "All you wanted to do was kiss?"

"Y-yes."

Ryuuko held him up high, by his shoulder seams, and gulped in determination. "Ok then!" she exclaimed. "But don't be disappointed if it's not what you expected!" She pursed her lips, tensed her arms, and brought him in close.

Senketsu scrunched his eye shut and held his breath in anticipation.

Their mouths met and Ryuuko went in sideways, heat gathering between their eyes as they slid to the floor. After moments of intertwined breathing, Ryuuko made a decision.

She forced her tongue in.

"HFFF!" Senketsu pried away, folding backwards. "W...what was that!" he sputtered.

Ryuuko dropped him. "What was WHAT?" she yelled, her fists raised and face reddening further. "It was a kiss, dumbass!"

"No, what was that for?!"

"It's a deep kiss, it's an adult thing," she went on, taking it as a slight to her technique. "Are you really so stupid?"

"No, there was a concerning reaction! The blood flowing through me began to boil. In response, your body attempted to absorb me."

It dawned upon her that he was truly useless unworn. She chuckled.

"Ryuuko! This is no laughing matter."

"Yeah, you sure know your blood, huh?" she agreed. "Too bad you can't make any sense of it."

"I can make perfect sense of it. You were trying to absorb me."

"That's not it, stupid."

"Then what was it?"

She stood up, insulted by his accusation. "Figure it out yourself." She pulled a towel from a laundry stack. "I'm doing all the work here and you can't even sort yourself out? Screw that." The towel was wrapped around her tightly, its uppermost corner tucked between her breasts.

Though inanimate, Senketsu irrationally felt the towel was wronging him. Judging him. Stealing his identity. Stealing his future! "Fine," he said testily. "Then I'll go with my first conclusion."

"Do whatever you want!"

"I will!"

"Damn it, now I'm angry! Piss off before I lose it! Go on!"

Senketsu was lost for words, but he finally understood the cause of her anger. The mood was completely ruined.

The laundry room door slung open and Satsuki appeared. "Ryuuko!" she said. "Senketsu! There you two are." Her eyebrows twitched, sensing something amiss. "Your fitting is today. You have thirty minutes to clean-up. Excuse me..." She closed the door on their heavy atmosphere.

"Tch!" Ryuuko went for the window and yanked it open. "I'm off!" She climbed the sill. "To put on some cuter clothes!"

"Stop! This is the fifth floor," Senketsu warned. "Ryuuko? Don't go. Come here and put me on."

She defiantly stuck her legs out.

"Ryuuko! I am serious. Get down from there." He was firm—at least until she shot him an angry pouty face and broke his will. "Please," he said, still trying to retain some dignity. "I'm not upset with you."

Gripping the frame, she swung herself up and flew to the next floor, presumably to her room.

"Ryuuko!" He hopped to the window but was repelled by the breeze. Going for the door instead, he wrapped his sleeve around the knob and fumbled turning it, failing miserably. "Don't leave me here!" He ineffectively slapped himself against the door. "Open up. I'm no good with doors!" He battered the knob like an enraged cat; "HELP."

A whole fifteen minutes later, the door opened and Ryuuko reappeared, dressed in a black and blood-splattered skater dress. "Huh. What are still doing in here?" she asked, rubbing her hair with her towel. "You better not have been drinking all the fabric softener."

"You may have forgotten," he answered, miraculously composed, "but you trapped me in here." He hopped over to her and sternly scanned her blood print dress.

"Hm? What's wrong?" She pulled a fiendish smirk. "Does it make you hungry?"

"I suppose it does." He raised a cuff and swept it across her skirt. "Because you look cute in this. What's that saying?" He tried to remember the strange phrase. "Good enough to eat."

Ryuuko clasped her reddening face. "Alright alright, let's make up," she blurted, flustered. Reaching into the hallway behind her, she retrieved a red tote bag and began shoving him into it. "Get in, you also have to be fitted today as well. Let's not be late. Sis might get angry!" She slung the tote bag over her shoulder and took off with him.

A short helicopter ride later, they landed on a private rooftop in an unfamiliar shopping district and—lead by Satsuki and Nonon—took a short walk to a forested park in the block's center. Following a gravel path off to the side, they entered through a stone gate and reached an opulent, old-style house and inner garden, complete with pond and a clanking bamboo deer-scarer.

"Hey Sis," Ryuuko muttered, disconcerted by the traditional atmosphere. "This whole fitting. How long's it gonna take?"

"It's not just a fitting anymore," Satsuki said, her forehead chiseling into lines as thick as her brows. "We have three days until the date. So the shoot was moved up to today. As well as other things."

"S-shoot?" Ryuuko gawked. "The date?"

"Ah, this is going to be suuuch fun," Nonon said, a sadistic smile encompassing her face.

They proceeded inside the nine tatami-mat-sized room and straight to the fitting.

Behind a golden folding screen, Ryuuko yelped as two women strangled her with long strips of cloth, binding her chest firmly in preparation.

With arms folded, Nonon watched—or more aptly, teased—from the folding screen's far edge. "What's wrong, dear little sister?" she said. "Too many layers to breathe?"

"YOU aren't allowed call me that," Ryuuko said.

Worried, Senketsu rose from his tote bag on the other side and surveyed the screen between him and Ryuuko. He stopped when he heard noise from behind.

"Senketsu," Satsuki said, walking toward him. "We're ready." She went over and picked him up by his sleeves.

Iori—the former president of the Sewing Club and Goku Uniform production—walked in next, alongside Inumuta, who was carrying a tiny, obnoxiously-sparkling armoire. "It took longer than expected," Iori said, "but it's been completed."

Inumuta dropped the armoire and it flopped open, revealing a neatly-folded pile of robes. "We had plans to present these to you tonight," he said, flashing his glasses. "But there's not enough time."

Iori retrieved them. "Let's get started."

Senketsu stood stoically as they went about dressing him.

"It took great effort designing these," Iori said, wrapping and adjusting the first vestment, all while being careful not to cover-up Senketsu's face, "due to the challenges presented."

"Huh, clothes wearing clothes," Inumuta muttered through his high collar. "How meta."

"There's a term for it." Iori prepared the ultra-short hakama pants. "Layering."

"Hm. Don't you think his collar should be out?"

"Out?"

"Out. Over everything."

"Why?

Inumuta circled a finger at it. "Isn't it like his hair?"

"Hair?" Iori ruminated on this. "Senketsu is a sailor uniform."

"But school girls wear their collars out. Over their cardigans."

"True, however, Senketsu is not a school girl."

"How can you be so sure? Do you have reliable references? Data?"

"I'm not prepared for this conversation."

"Obviously. I am an expert on collars, after all."

"Yes, yes. The haori, please."

Inumuta lifted the ultra-short robe with his pinky.

Iori stared at him forbearingly. "Please be careful with that," he said.

"Forgive me. It's just so disproportionate."

"Yes. It was designed to be worn by a sailor uniform."

"Because Lady Ryuuko's groom is a sailor uniform."

"That is correct. The groom of the second Kiryuuin heiress is a sailor uniform."

"A sailor uniform."

"More precisely, a kamui."

Senketsu went walleyed, his confidence and comfort-level vanishing beneath their merciless scrutiny.

Clearing her throat, Satsuki turned away. "I'm going to check on my little sister," she said, leaving them to their redundant bantering. The folding screen rattled as Satsuki moved past.

"Sis!" Ryuuko said, "What's with this place? What's the meaning of all this—erghha!" The fitters audibly squeezed the air from her lungs as they tied-off her first robe.

"You're being fitted. For your uchikake," Satsuki answered. "So we can take commemorative photos of your union with Senketsu."

"Yes, yes, I know that alread—UAHH!" The tie was tightened.

"Do you need more background info then?" Satsuki faced the black uchikake hanging from the wall—it was a lengthy kimono bearing red fan and white phoenix embroidery. "These grounds are actually the workshop and birthplace of ancient goldwork embroidery and odd material weaving," she went on to explain: "These secret techniques, passed down by Iori's family for centuries, are under the guardianship of the Kiryuuin family for its own personal use... For this reason, we must honor their sacrifice through exclusive patronage."

"Wait, so you've been shamelessly hoarding a national herita—gghh!"

Satsuki radiated an eye-searing light. "The word is 'protecting'!" she blazoned, a random gust tousling her hair. "Hoarding is the vice of the weak! Protecting is the task of the nobility!" Her voice mysteriously reverberated, as if she were shouting from a cliff: "So never make the mistake twice... There is no nobility in fragility!"

Ryuuko gritted her teeth. "I see... Sis. It all makes sense now," she lied. "So." She gasped for air. "How's Senketsu doing?"

Satsuki's eye-searing light dissipated. "He should be done soon. I'll check on him once more." She pushed past the screen to the other side, conveniently walking in on Iori and Inumuta's ending conversation.

"And that's why I wouldn't be surprised," Inumuta said, "if she married her own two eyebrows."

The surrounding temperature went ten degrees colder—seemingly at Satsuki's command.

"Lady Satsuki," Iori said, condensation beading on his big forehead. "Preparations are complete. The garden and staff are ready. However, reporters and journalists are gathering outside the compound. They're demanding entrance."

"I trust the boundary is secured."

"Yes."

"Good." She turned to Inumuta. "It's time to release those investigative files on the affiliated press clubs."

"I see... So that's what you had in mind," Inumuta said, producing his laptop and clacking away at the keys. "Bribes, gang ties, acts of coercion, illicit affairs... our nation's journalists are newsworthy in their own right. This will keep them busy for days."

Satsuki's mouth corners lifted. Overnight, she would create and destroy hundreds of lives and careers, in the name of justice. And her little sister's big day.

"It's done," Inumuta said, closing his laptop.

"Then it's almost time," Satsuki said, turning her back on them. "Escort Senketsu outside. Be ready in thirty minutes."

"Hohoho," Nonon laughed off to the side, showcasing a handful of ornate, dagger-like hair pins. "It's time to do your hair, dear little sister!"

Ryuuko yelled; "GET AWAY FROM ME."

The deer-scarer clanked as Senketsu was carried through the garden, hand-in-sleeve, by Iori and Inumuta—where they eventually handed him over to a group of identical bowl-headed men in suits. Senketsu was then stretched, shaken, and propped over the scenic garden path as they as they decided, as a whole, how to position him. A marble pedestal, gold-leafed side table, barrel, noose, coat rack, and even a clothes-drying frame were all tested until they settled on a see-through plastic column to support him at the appropriate height.

In a similar vein, Ryuuko body-surfed outside on a swarm of identical office ladies wielding light umbrellas, tripod cameras, folders, fabric swatches, and clip boards, until she was flung beside Senketsu and promptly mobbed by both sides. When the wave receded, Senketsu and Ryuuko were left posed together, perfectly, solemnly, and seriously disturbed.

A machine gun round of flashes and shutters went off, the racket's glare tearing into the couple's retinas at a frequency of intensity beyond even Satsuki. When the assault was finally over, Ryuuko's eyes bled profusely and visible floaters sparked from Senketsu's vacant stare.

Satsuki appeared, clapped her hands, and instantly withdrew her faceless lackeys. As she raised a hand overhead, a helicopter beat down on the garden as one last profanation against its ethereal serenity. "Onward to Nagasaki!" she bellowed.

Ryuuko finally lost it. "Hey hey HEY," she yelled, taking one staggered step forward in her heavy getup. "What the hell are you planning now?!"

"YOUR WEDDING." Satsuki's every outline reamed with action lines. "And if you're still demanding, the itinerary is as follows!" She pulled out a massive ringed binder bursting with pamphlets, print-outs, sketches, fabric, photos, and unidentifiable crafting bits. "At fifteen-hundred hours, first dress fitting! At sixteen-hundred hours, second dress fitting! At seventeen-hundred hours, third dress fitting! Eighteen-hundred hours, first ceremony rehearsal! Twenty-one-hundred hours, rehearsal dinner! Tomorrow, eight-hundred hours, fourth dress fitting! Nine-hundred hours, fifth dress fitting! Ten-hundred hours, sixth dress fitting! Eleven—"

"—HOW many goddamned wedding dresses am I wearing?!"

"Eleventy-eight!"

"That's NOT a number," Ryuuko said, gnashing her teeth as she lifted the entire plastic column Senketsu was perched on (he fell off), and wielded it like a battering ram, "KIIIIIIRYUUUIIIN SATSUKI!"

Satsuki's eyes flashed as she smashed the binder closed and readied it, open-side out. "A number is a number if a Kiryuuin Satsuki says so!" she said, "MATOOOI RYUUUUKO!"

"I'm warning you, Sis! Three days is not enough time! Make it three weeks!"

Satsuki remained unrelenting. "Test me any further and I'll make it three hours!"

"What? Daaaaamn you!" Ryuuko dashed forward, her weaponized pedestal hoisted at a deadly angle and her muscles clenched through her inflexible kimono. The garden path buckled as she dug her feet in and slammed down on her sister, plastic bludgeoning plastic as Satsuki proceeded to parry every lightning-quick hit with her mere binder.

"HA," Satsuki roared, spinning the binder around and bashing Ryuuko with its broad side, repulsing her back.

"The! The crap?!" Ryuuko huffed, leveraging the pedestal as she slid backwards through the gravel. "She didn't budge at all... Am I getting out of shape?" She tried pinching her belly through her pillowy garb. "Or is it all these layers?" She attempted tugging it off but only made it tighter. "Senketsu!" She called. "I can't take it anymore, let me wear you!"

Senketsu, who had been watching the battle from the sidelines (along with the parked helicopter), balked at her request. "But Ryuuko," he said, troubled by her eagerness for battle. "Your sister is unarmed...!"

"She's not unarmed!" She pointed at a deadpan Satsuki. "She's got a binder!"

"Ryuuko."

"Geez!" Ryuuko returned to her hapless tugging and the robe tightened more. "Arghff," she gasped, falling flat on her face. "S...Senketsu," she cried, furious tears in her eyes as she writhed around, her twisted and bound sleeves holding his attention. "Take it off me, please... I want to wear you so badly." Soft bubbles floated by, at least to Senketsu.

"Ry..." Steam rose from his collar. He had no nose, symbolic or otherwise, but notwithstanding, blood sprayed from the area where one should be, and like a boiling geyser, soaked the earth where he immediately collapsed, fully absorbed and spent in his own puddle. Much like a wet towel.

"THE HELL, THIS IS NO TIME TO GET AROUSED."

Satsuki laughed, once. "Load these two," she said, stepping into the helicopter.

Made defenseless by their own stupidity, Ryuuko and Senketsu were dragged by their hems and then transported away to Nagasaki, where they spent the rest of the day enslaved to Satsuki's schedule. And her ambitions.


	6. A Night Train of Love

**Is this story real, or is it one of Ryuuko's insane fever dreams?**

* * *

By the 55th dress, that following day, Ryuuko managed to "convince" her older sister into reconsidering her absurd selection. Holding a dismantled clothing rod in hand, alert, Ryuuko circled the boutique's large mirrored fitting room, eyes upturned as she watched Satsuki's movements. In Satsuki's hands were a wooden hanger each, two weapons poised in defense.

"I mean it! No mid-aisle transformations," Ryuuko hissed, stepping surprisingly well in her wine and white rose-themed ballgown (an overdone mess which resembled a purple cabbage more than a flower). "The ceremony will be done in just one dress. ONE. DRESS." She hitched the rod upwards, dispelling Satsuki's planned retaliation. "And I'll only change during the reception! Like normal people do! Nine dresses at most!"

"Do you understand," Satsuki said lowly, "how this pains me?" All she ever wanted was to see her little sister in hundreds of puffy wedding dresses. Was that truly the crime Ryuuko was making it out to be?

Ryuuko clicked her tongue and sighed like an old man: "Ahh, I'm agreeing too much already. Huuu. Pain, huh? What is it that I don't understand about pain?" She raised her head and kept circling. "Pain... is experiencing what you don't want to experience! What I don't want to experience, and what you don't want to experience. So us, experiencing this very experience, not wanting to experience it together, and fighting to drive it upon the other, back and forth, on and on, until the other side misses." She repositioned the rod over head, ready to strike Satsuki, somehow predicting her moves. "Sort of like an angry tennis match!"

Satsuki cracked a grin. But not for any sane reason. "I see," she said, dropping her arms at her sides, dissolving her stance. "So that's what you're doing."

"Giving up?"

Throwing her arms back out, Satsuki proceeded to smash all the mirrors at a supersonic speed.

Ryuuko spun her rod to deflect any exploding shards, her eyes bulging at the destruction. "The hell!" she yelled when the last piece dropped. "Look what you did to the store!" Her mouth fell open as she pored over the mess.

Satsuki didn't mind, being insufferably rich and whatnot. "You rely too heavily on your sight... just like someone else once did," she said, sliding the hangers past her sleeves and gripping them by their hooks, like tonfas. "The mirrors gave you full perspective of my footing—a sight I wasn't afforded, given how puffy and long your skirt is."

Snorting at her sister's audacity, Ryuuko lazily stretched her neck and let it pop. "Then why don't you wear it instead?" she muttered in turn.

"As good as it looked on paper," Satsuki charged, hangers slung, "I don't think it suits either of us!"

"I agree!" Ryuuko huffed, sweeping her rod outwards and tangling it in Satsuki's dual weapons. Twisting it away, she raised and hammered the rod down, cross-blocked and trapped once more by the hangers' maneuvering. "Ergh!" Ryuuko grunted, sliding it free and then guarding as Satsuki went on the offense and bludgeoned away, denting the hollow alloy rod until it resembled a warped highway guardrail.

"Your rebellion ends here!" Satsuki blazoned, her fine oak hangers scissoring through Ryuuko's trashed weapon and lopping it in half.

"No," Ryuuko grunted, grabbing the other half in defiance, "it begins here!" She twirled them like batons and jabbed them at her older sister, splintering her hangers in breakneck succession. "It's over!" she yelled as the wood disintegrated, leaving Satsuki with nothing but hooks.

Staring down at her hooks, Satsuki reversed her grip on them in favor of a more pirate-style approach. "It's over—" she proclaimed, hooking them around her little sister's makeshift batons, "—when a Kiryuuin Satsuki says so!"

"ERG," Ryuuko bellowed, trying to wriggle out. "DAMN YOU."

"And by my word, you will wear EVERY SINGLE DRESS I've liked thus far!"

"NEVER."

"And you and Senketsu will be legally adopted under the Kiryuuin family name!"

"What the..." Ryuuko was bowled-over by how random this was. "N-no! I'm keeping it Matoi!"

Satsuki pretended not to hear. "Paperwork!" she called.

Instantaneously, a gaggle of suited bureaucrats appeared with pens and papers ready.

"Sign!" Satsuki commanded, still hooking her sister.

The bureaucrats shoved a pen in Ryuuko's pinky and moved the paper around it.

"Ahh!" Ryuuko gasped in disbelief. "This is marriage fraud!"

"Procure a signature from the uniform!" Satsuki said.

"Yes, Lady Satsuki!" the bureaucrats answered in unison, marching into the other room and harassing Senketsu, who was in the middle of being pinned into his tuxedo.

"It's over," Satsuki said. "From now on, the Kiryuuin name has a new face and destiny." She closed her eyes and smiled slightly. "Right in time for the ceremony tomorrow."

"Yeah?" Ryuuko emitted, releasing her batons and running off. "Well good luck with that!"

By the time Satsuki noticed, it was too late. "RETURN HER AT ONCE." She ordered her henchmen to tackle her, but Ryuuko had already grabbed Senketsu. Throwing off her gown at the door, Ryuuko netted them in its superfluous skirt and laughed as she escaped down the street in her striped underwear, Senketsu thrashing around as she forced herself into him. Blending into the lunchtime crowd, she made her way to the nearest station and forced herself through a closing train door. As the car began to move, her and Senketsu sighed, the two finally safe.

"Whew, we made it!" Ryuuko said, slumping down against the door. "What a rush. We showed them, huh?" She rubbed her forehead in exhaustion. "There was no way I could take another hour of that..."

"Ryuuko..." Senketsu said, attuned to her suffering. "Forgive me, I did not realize your sister would be like this."

"Don't worry about that," Ryuuko murmured, "neither did I." She chuckled, correcting her posture. "Though, feel free to blame yourself for not eloping with me when you had the chance."

Senketsu answered with silence, seemingly mulling something over—something which had been bothering him for the past two days. "Out of everyone you've met and everyone you've interacted with," he said at last, "why?..."

"Hmm?" Ryuuko crooked her neck down at him. "Why what?"

"Why... me?"

She didn't answer straightaway. She took a few minutes instead, listening to the cacophony of people's voices and the rattling of the car. "Why why?" she asked in turn, completing the circle. "Do you have a problem with me?"

"No." He held his breath, not sure if he'd ever get a sensible answer. "I was simply curious."

"I told you how I feel already." Her heartbeat picked up, pulsing through his fibers. "Is that not enough?"

"No. I know how you feel, but I still do not know why."

"There it is again! How about you then! Why are you so ok with being stuck with me, huh?"

"Because you are Ryuuko," he answered without hesitation, as if that made any more sense. "The strongest. The cutest. The most important." He meditated and then added, "At least I think so."

"At least you think so..." Ryuuko smacked her forehead against the window, knowing that from the start, he'd always given her his best while she gave him mostly shit. "Don't tell anyone this, but sometimes when I look at myself, I remember all the stuff I did wrong and think, 'Ha, what a loser'. But I like to pretend otherwise. It's the only way to keep from going crazier."

"I have never told anyone anything, regardless."

"I forgot, you're good at keeping secrets huh!"

"And you are not a loser. You have won countless fights, including the most important one."

"The fight against my sister?"

"No. Saving the world."

"As if that matters." She exhaled sharply, observing the packed train. "Look at these people. Despite everything that's happened, they've already forgotten, that for once, everybody was the underdog. The world may have been peaceful for awhile, but once they all went back to blaming each other... it returned to its meaningless chaos."

"As it should. The human brain chemically suffers if it runs out of reasons for perceived threats. Hormones unbalance. Blood pressure rises. Humans are forced to blame one another to even those imbalances out."

Ryuuko watched the cityscape flashing by the glass. "Sometimes," she said, "I think the Life Fibers had every right to blow it all up."

Senketsu stammered; "W...what?"

"Because without them," she continued, "wouldn't people still be just a bunch of dumb, naked apes, throwing rocks at each other? Well. Maybe it wouldn't be much different than how it is now, but we definitely wouldn't be as cool." She turned around and leaned against the glass. "Ah, what am I saying? This isn't the spirit of the resistance, is it? But I'm happy we're still here, that we won, and that we took back our fate. Then again... I can't shake how I was after you were gone." She touched the corner of Senketsu's intent eye. "And how no one but Mako confirmed," she stopped, "how insanely prejudiced your last words were! It left me wondering... was that all we learned from our time together? That you were the selfless, expendable one—and not a person? An object that's human, but not human enough? Is that how people are supposed to think?" Her fingers lashed out and squeezed the nearest train handle. "What the crap do people know, then? Why was I so lame without you there, telling me to do the things I used to do fine?" Her bangs fell into her eyes. "It's still hard for me to understand, how that happened. How did you do that? And that's why you."

With her outpouring, he felt a change in restraint. "I... see," he murmured, troubled by the idea that he was within rights to be even more selfish; a human-level sort of selfish. "I understand."

"No you don't." She knocked her head on the window again. "But maybe you do. It must have been hard on you, that time I was out for a month."

"I managed."

A vein popped on Ryuuko's forehead. "That's an understatement, from what I heard!" she spat, her apparent knowledge filling Senketsu with dread. "Mako told me later. When you thought no one was around, you held onto my hand and cried!"

Senketsu swallowed and avoided eye-contact, unspeakably embarrassed.

"Idiot," she said. "There's nothing wrong with that... I figured that out later."

They rode the rest of the way without a word between them. Their stop arrived and the door whirred open. Slipping through the herd, Ryuuko hit the street and ran, and by the time they spoke again, they'd already traversed several city blocks.

"Ryuuko, where are we going?" Senketsu asked, wondering if she was initiating her elopement plan.

"Somewhere fun," she said. "Why?" She brushed his side. "Should we run away together?"

He almost got caught-up in her pace. "Let's," he answered, then remembering he was the saner one between them. "But only for today."

"Ahh, fine," she sputtered in disappointment, holding her hands behind her head. "You almost made my heart stop there..."

"Then it's a good thing one of us practices reason."

"Are... are you saying you're the brains of the outfit?!"

"That is not what I said."

"That IS what you said!" She knotted-up his tie in retaliation. "Don't go thinking you hold any advantages over me!"

"Please stop! AHHH!"

Later, beneath the mid-afternoon sun, they stood outside an amusement park, two tickets clenched in Ryuuko's hand. "We've never done this before," she muttered, stepping into line. "A... date." The paper nearly tore in her nervous grasp. "I mean, properly. An outing! I think it's important at least once." She crossed her arms and coughed forcefully.

Swallowing, Senketsu stared ahead and tried focusing on what was beyond the wall, not on Ryuuko's jumping heart. "You said this place was for amusement," he said. "But how so?"

"How so..." Ryuuko muttered, the two of them next in line. "There's rides and events. It can be a little tiring, but it's exciting I guess." She shuffled her feet and tried to act like she was too cool for it.

"Ah, so this is your childish side."

"What! I don't know what you're talking about." She handed the tickets over. "I'm just doing this for you, ok? Be quiet."

The ticket guy examined the two slips and then Ryuuko, who had been scolding somebody while standing before a long line of self-involved couples. "Eh. Is there someone else with you?" the guy asked, oblivious to Senketsu's presence and glancing past.

"Just take them," Ryuuko said, strained by his continued searching.

"But if there's someone else going in, you should wait for them to—"

"—TAKE THEM." She stood on her tiptoes and thug-stared him into compliance. He squeaked and let her through.

For the first stage of their outing, Ryuuko took Senketsu on a series of roller coasters, all which proved unexpectedly tame in spite of the wild screams from the other riders. After the fourth ride, Ryuuko lost interest in thrill-seeking and settled on purchasing a giant three-scoop ice cream cone. "That's funny. I don't remember them being that slow," she said in-between licks. "Must be because we're that hardcore! It's difficult becoming a civilian again..."

"Then we should synchronize sometime," Senketsu suggested, "if you still find flying around enjoyable. I think I could manage the rest."

"I've been thinking about that lately," Ryuuko said, abandoning her ice cream cone and letting her mind wander. "Synchronizing..." Blood gathered in her cheeks as she lost herself in obscene thoughts.

Noticing her ice cream cone was dripping his way, Senketsu spoke out against it. "Ryuuko, your ice cream is melting." She ignored him and he began to sweat, almost as if he himself were melting. "Ryuuko? This is important. It's building! Ah! It's picking up speed! There it goes! Help! HELP." Strawberry chocolate chunk went all down his collar and he held his breath, his eye watering from the injustice of such a tragedy. "This could have been prevented...!"

"Huh?" Ryuuko broke from her reverie. "Ah, cold!" She tugged the fabric away from her chest. "Geez, why didn't you warn me?" She pulled his collar into her mouth and sucked. "Mh, it's still cold."

Melting for real this time, Senketsu glowed like molten metal and nearly dribbled away. "W-what are you doing," he said, squirming in an out-of-control manner to cool off, "ahh! Everyone is watching us!"

Shaking back laughter, Ryuuko nearly dropped her ice cream cone. "So what?" She managed a serious demeanor. "Let them watch us." She retook his collar and continued what she was doing, but with added exaggeration and unmistakable kissy noises.

A small crowd gathered and before Senketsu literally fell apart, he willed his fibers into constricting Ryuuko's movements and then lead her away, off down a side path and away from the curious stares of onlookers. Dashing through an ally, he brought her into a gated maintenance area and stopped.

"Whoa, Senketsu," Ryuuko said with surprise, surveying the empty and well-shaded spot. "Did you have this place in mind all along?"

"No, I was not expecting a dead end," he answered, unaware of what she meant, "in any case, let's hide here until those people move along."

"Really? What's so wrong about a little exhibitionism here and there?" Ryuuko shook her head. "You sure have confusing ethics...!"

Ethics? He acted purely on what he felt, and that was... self-consciousness. The sort of awareness Ryuuko had to sacrifice to defeat her enemies and save her loved ones. "Bearing it all..." he said, guilt overrunning him; "I had no idea it was like this, and yet I..."

"Haaa, how long has it been?" she tried to calculate on her fingers how many months had passed since those academy days. "Ehh, don't worry about it." She gave up and went back to nibbling her ice cream cone. "It doesn't matter. I'll tell you firsthand, alright? Being a person is all about being a hypocrite. So congratulations." She patted him. "You're a person."

He still felt stupid. "Right... You might have become a little wiser in the days past..." And so much so, he wasn't sure what she meant, exactly.

"Well, I've had expensive lessons!" She gently knocked her gut. "Let's head back, shall we?"

"Yes."

As they left the abandoned area for the main path and circled around the central water fountain, the sun slipped slightly and the entire park lit-up, the massive Ferris wheel in the distance flashing a star-burst pattern of colorful lights.

"It seems... it will be dark soon," Senketsu said in disbelief. "And it feels like we just got here."

"Oh, is it that late already?" Ryuuko chewed, checking her watch. "Perfect." A knowing grin lifted on her lips. "We should go there next." She finished her cone and ran.

As they wove through a solid mass of people, Senketsu's eye focused on smiling couple after couple, their shining faces and interlocked hands lingering in his mind—even after Ryuuko landed them into the queue for the Ferris wheel. Glancing down at his left wrist cuff, and verifying Ryuuko was distracted, he decided to chance a sudden idea. Manipulating his fibers, he slowly stretched his cuff past her wrist and over her knuckles, squeezing and enclosing them, much like heat-shrink tubing.

Slowly, Ryuuko lifted her wrapped hand and inspected it. "S...Senketsu?" she asked, sounding more worried than impressed. "Is everything alright with you?"

"Yes," Senketsu answered immediately. "Everything is fine."

She was not convinced. "Eh," she muttered, "then... if you don't mind me asking... what's going on with my hand here?" She flipped the encased appendage over and back again. "Technical difficulties?"

He was devastated by her labeling his efforts as such, but still, he decided to be honest. "I am holding your hand, Ryuuko."

"Holding my hand..." She repeated his words a few more times, an unaware smile overtaking her features. "Ha, you idiot!" Her fingers squeezed his cuff. "Not bad!"

When their turn arrived, the ride conductor seated a drooling and eager man into the cabin beside Ryuuko, but she raised a foot and booted him out, closing the door and confounding all onlookers by yelling that she had something important to discuss with her fiance.

As Senketsu watched the ground beneath them diminish, the sparkling city lights appeared before them and the sky dimmed into a reddish-black, the sun sinking further beyond the line where everything converged. And then the black overtook all. For a moment, he forgot to ask her what that important thing was, but when he did remember, she spoke first.

"There are suspicious people over there," Ryuuko said and pointed, facing them towards the side window. Palms pressed against the glass, she held her breath and bit her lip as several flares shot towards the heavens and then—with a chain of earsplitting booms—rained green sparks upon them.

"W...we are under fire!" Senketsu gasped, nearly leaping off her skin. "The enemy is attacking from behind! Hurry Ryuuko, we must transform and escape!... Ryuuko?"

Her body convulsed. She was laughing. At his expense.

"Those... those are fireworks, idiot! UWAHAHA," she burst, doubling over. "This was such a good idea! Gwahaah!" She guffawed until her voice went hoarse—Senketsu's eye scrunching low in displeasure. "Goddamn, you're like a war-scarred veteran or something! Ahhh," she sighed, taking her hands off the glass. "Forget all that garbage I said earlier today." She wiped away her gleeful tears. "I know it's all worth it with you here... by my side." Her smiling face shone with adoration, completely displacing his brief displeasure and erasing his every doubt. He supposed he didn't mind her prank anymore, since it made her so happy.

More fireworks scattered, blue and gold sparks which fell harmlessly through the night before erasing halfway. Mesmerized, Senketsu almost didn't notice when Ryuuko reached down their shirt and rifled around in her bra, fishing out a small box he'd never noticed there before. "I'm still too reckless," she said, opening the box to reveal a pair of gold button covers. "I should've had something like this prepared, before mouthing off in front of everybody..." She took one out and latched it onto his left cuff button. "It fits!" She brandished it excitedly—until she realized he was within rights to judge her for it. "I mean... it's not that great, but it's the best I could come up with..." She hunched over, her hair standing on end. "Don't say it's dumb!"

Senketsu examined the shiny gold cover on his button, his eye glistening as he fathomed all the thoughts and intention she'd pressed into it. "I will treasure this forever," he said sincerely, accepting this not only as a precious gift from the one he loved, but as the first possession he could ever call his own. Ryuuko reached for the other cover but he stopped her. "Wait." He lowered a loose thread to her. "This is all I have. It's not much... but please take it."

Understanding what he meant, she pulled the thread out and tied the second button cover around her neck. "Then with this," she murmured, tucking the makeshift pendant into their shirt, "we're ready for tomorrow."

Senketsu hummed in accordance, his eye resting against her warm chest. Despite his anticipation for tomorrow, he secretly wished this moment would never end. He wished, but yet, like the fireworks above, the two lowered from the skyline and that moment was lost forever in time, saved as a memory between them.

Sensing Senketsu's sadness, Ryuuko wrapped an arm around their waist. "We can come here again," she suggested. "If you'd like."

"Yes," he answered. "I would like that."

Laughing softly, Ryuuko observed the night sky one more time before they dropped much further down. As the firework finale went off, a red star—only a little ways above the moon—flashed and gleamed. And Ryuuko made a wish.

At the Kiryuuin estate, Satsuki sat listlessly in her dark office as her butler, Soroi, served her a cup of freshly-brewed tea. "I'm sure she's on her way right now," he assured Satsuki, sensing her dour mood. "Lady Ryuuko may be uncompromising at times, but she never lets heartfelt endeavors go to waste."

Satsuki brought her cup close and sipped. "I think you're right," she said, frowning. "However, I'm afraid I crossed a line with her today."

"She'll understand, you're only thinking of her future."

"A future of recapturing lost time... our sisterhood and our childhoods." Satsuki glared at the floor. "In truth, though, I already know I can't keep her here forever." She cracked a wry grin. "Even if I distract her with all the attention and toys I can muster. Even if I force her into becoming a detestable Kiryuuin. Nothing guarantees she'll always come home to me." She took another sip.

"She'll always come home to you. Because you're family." He arranged the tea platter. "And because you're Kiryuuin Satsuki."

She chuckled and her mood lightened. "Yes, I think you might be very right about that, Soroi."

A floating communications screen blinked and she raised her head, discovering it was a call from Inumuta. "Good evening," she said. "Progress report?"

"Good evening, Lady Satsuki," Inumuta said, tipping his glasses. "Everything's ready for tomorrow, if that's what you're asking."

"I see. And my sister?"

"In route. I uncovered security footage of her and Senketsu heading back on the train line from Yamanashi Prefecture, time-stamped nearly an hour ago."

"Then she'll be home soon." Satsuki put her tea down. "Was there anything else?"

"Yes, there is." Inumuta seemed concerned. "I was notified of an unidentified object heading for Earth." He displayed a computer simulation of its scaled path, speed, heat refraction, light absorption, and diameter. "At its observed acceleration... it will hit Japan by tomorrow afternoon."

Momentarily stunned by its destructive speed and composition, Satsuki stood up from her chair. "Why wasn't this detected earlier?" she intoned, her eyebrows twitching.

"I don't like saying this, but it appeared out of nowhere."

"Impossible..." She clenched her fists. "Have you been in contact with Nudist Beach?"

"They were the ones who tipped me off. Their Beach Orbital Net is only half constructed, so they requested permission to borrow the Kiryuuin Skyhook. I authorized this request and the alignment is underway."

"The Kiryuuin Skyhook is only half complete as well..." she said, envisioning they needed it as a tether. "The Beach Orbital Net..." From what she knew, it was one of Nudist Beach's largest projects—a massive space net—made for intercepting Life Fiber masses before they entered Earth's atmosphere and scattered. She held her chin. "Estimated success rate?"

"Optimistically, 72%"

Satsuki scoffed. This plan would fall through without fail. "Have other collision avoidance strategies been implemented?"

"The world's powers are still in very... relaxed discussions about that right now." Inumuta folded his hands. "However, the Kiryuuin laser canon is on standby should the net fail."

Satsuki glowered at the screen. "Something is coming."

"Are you thinking about postponing tomorrow's event?"

"No." She turned away. "How is Ryuuko's fiber culture?"

"The dust we collected grew just enough to craft what you requested."

"Good. I'll need it for tomorrow." She walked away. "I'll be right over." The screen clicked off and Soroi bowed as she left.

That night, Ryuuko returned home to a plastic-wrapped homemade dinner set out by Satsuki, the likes who had disappeared completely from the mansion.


	7. Cinderella Cannot Sleep

**Uh, I dunno how to tell you guys this, but this chapter kinda has a lemon. Probably. Let me know if it's too mature and I'll bump up the rating.**

* * *

Majestic brass trumpeted throughout the mansion, three times in succession, then again, and onward in multiplied ascension, rising against the ear-splitting burst of an entire live orchestra ripping into a lively rendition of the "Wedding March". Gasping awake, Ryuuko gripped her bed covers and—as cymbals clashed and a drumming timpani rumbled her walls—she covered her head with her pillow and unintelligibly cursed Nonon with the rawest terms of abuse she knew. Despite her efforts, Nonon's band continued their extra-early morning practice.

"AGH come on, it's still dark out!" Ryuuko cried, sitting upright and ripping her covers off. "Senketsu, are you still asleep after all this—" a tall, dark figure stood beside her bed, terrorizing her with its unexpectedness, "—HWAAAA!" She kicked it away, dropped to the ground, and then lifted her entire nightstand overhead, readying to smack it upon the unmoving room invader.

"Ryuuko, calm down, it's me!" Senketsu exclaimed.

"Huh?" Reaching up, she clicked the nighstand's lamp on and saw, at her feet, a dark and faceless store mannequin. This wasn't any more assuring—and she was about to yell and smash it accordingly—until she noticed Senketsu's eye on its muscular abdomen. "What the," she said, returning her nightstand to its proper place. "Senketsu, what are you doing?" She crawled to his figure and checked him in confusion.

"I was practicing." He closed his eye, distraught over having been discovered. "I didn't want you to see me like this. Not yet. Not until I figured out how to arrange myself a proper face." He gulped as she stared at his helpless new form. "Or move..."

Perturbed, she touched the stomach around his eye, his artificial abs, and then his stiff, jointless arms. Despite this human-like form, his skin still felt the same as before—that indescribable texture between canvas and skin. This relieved her. "W-what's with this all of sudden?" she asked, laughing rigidly at his ridiculous, big-eyed stomach. "Do you think you have to be human now or something?"

"Yes, I think it will be necessary for certain things," Senketsu answered, concerned by her defensive tone. "Am I wrong?"

"Necessary? Oh, I see. Do you think I don't like you enough as is? That I find your appearance inconvenient? Unattractive?!"

"No! That's not—"

"—So! You're confident enough to decide my preferences huh?! "

Senketsu gave her a long pause. "I never knew how much you enjoyed wearing me. Until now."

"Yeah, you never did." She brought her knees under her chin. "D-don't get me wrong." She jerked and held her head up high. "I just don't want you to take yourself for granted! Between humans, true closeness is impossible. Being one... It's a metaphor humans use for their fake illusion of intimacy!" She flailed her arms as she got really into explaining herself. "Being one! In reality, we're the only ones in this world who can do it for real. I mean it! I wouldn't trade it for an illusion. Why would you?"

"I am not. Like all my other forms, this one is temporary."

"I know that! Listen you, that's not what I was saying..."

"I understand what you are saying, regardless of whether I agree or not. This form looks bad now, but there will be improvements."

"Yeah yeah! Like more pointless muscles?"

"If that is your preference."

"Idiot!" She crossed her arms and turned away. "When did you start worrying about this, anyway?" A blush crept across her nose.

Senketsu combusted in a cloud of red smoke, returning to his default form. "The other day, during my second fitting." He stopped and reconsidered what he was saying. "Never mind. It's not important."

"Not important?!" Ryuuko spun to face him. "Now I'm really curious!"

"No, I simply had a few hours to think about things. Nothing remarkable happened." He didn't have the heart to tell her, he overheard the fitters making crude jokes about their hypothetical married life.

"You're a terrible liar." Ryuuko stretched out and yawned, relaxed now that the music downstairs was in its calmer parts. "What if... I was the one who could change forms? And I decided to become a sailor uniform for you?"

Senketsu considered her improbable question. "I do not know. But maybe, you would find it went against your interests."

"There you go again! You think you do, but you don't know my interests at all." She stood on her knees and grabbed his sleeves. "If you did, you would've done something like this..." She forced him down and glared at him. "What's the matter? It's been forever since we've done it." She slid a finger down her pajama top and unbuttoned it. "Don't you want to?"

Senketsu's eye dilated and his every fiber began to burn. "T...this isn't something I remember doing," he stammered, twisting under her hold. "If that's what you meant, of course—I am not yet sure what to do, exactly, but I have a general idea—though you might want to give me a little more time to prepare!"

"What are you blabbering about?" Her top fell to the floor. "You want to be worn by me, right?" She slid her hands into his shirt. "Because I want to wear you."

"Ryuuko..." He shivered as she dragged her nails into his seams. "Very well then." His eye gleamed. "I'll do my best."

"That's the spirit!" She slipped him on. Standing, she raised her arms and then called out: "Life Fiber Synchronize!"

Confused, Senketsu stalled. "Wait, is this all you wanted?" he asked.

"Yes? Oh, it's without the glove... but that's never stopped us before!" She was really pumped. "Come on! Life Fiber Synchronize!"

"I... see..." His hopes were dashed, but nevertheless, he fulfilled her request. Maroon stars sprang out and shimmered audibly as their combined power exploded and sped together.

"Kamui Senketsu!" Ryuuko announced dramatically, her voice echoing despite the room's cozy acoustics.

Senketsu sweated. "Is this really all you wanted of me?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Ryuuko tightened a fist. "This feels great. You're the closest against my skin like this." She closed her eyes and grinned. "Ahh, it's been so long." She ruminated a bit longer before turning her gaze to him—the bridal chorus downstairs returning to its former intensity and dampening the mood. "Hey. Have we really looked at ourselves in a mirror this way?"

"I don't think I have."

"I bet you're curious now!" she flipped the light on and stomped over to her wall mirror. With one look, she ejected a high-pressured gasp. "Ah! It's totally different in full frontal view!" She tugged her left chest strap and then turned her back to the mirror, bending over and inspecting under her skirt. "Senketsu, you really are a pervert!" She went red when she saw just how closely he fitted there. "Do you get off on this?!"

He was twice as flustered. "T-this is also my first time seeing it like this!"

"Pervert! Liar."

"You said I'm a terrible liar!"

"You are."

"I thought we were beyond this!"

"Hm." Ryuuko restrained a smirk, walking over to the bed and then sitting down on it. "We are we are." She assured him and nodded, bringing a foot up onto the sheets. "It's just that there's always these surprises with you." She tilted her head and thought about the reaction she elicited from him earlier: _If it's like that, then... _She ran a finger up the side of her thigh-high boot, keenly watching as he trembled under her touch. Scratching him, lightly, she trailed up to the garter strap atop her thigh and plucked it, rubbing it in her fingers.

"Ryuuko," he murmured, unable to contain himself. "I thought you said—mh." His voice slipped away, distracted by her touch.

"It doesn't matter what I said... or what you planned." Her heart throbbed and she inhaled deeply, determined to take it even further. "What matters is going with the moment."

His trembling intensified and his voice escaped again: "Ah, Ryuuko... I love you."

"Y-you." She held a hand over her heated face. "Do you think spouting things like that will make me happy?" She angrily took both garter straps and tugged away at them, just to harass him.

"A-aah!" he cried out, his trembling intensifying. "That's not a—aahh."

Continuing mercilessly, she released him only after his trembling started rattling her spine. "This is..." she emitted, baffled by the traveling vibration. "Haah... ah." Shivering against it, she crumpled on her side, his fabric teasing and numbing her body like electricity. "Sen..." Leaning inwards, she ached for more but lost the ability to speak.

"I can't... stop." His eye went out of focus, his inhibitions shutting down as he savored her blood's full flavor; it was sweet and salty, the taste of her enjoying herself thoroughly and somehow, a rare one he wanted more of—one he wanted to coerce out of her at all costs, even if they lost their minds in the exploit. "Tasting like this..." His restraint faltered. "I could devour you." He clung closer, his material stretching over her spine in hunger for input, a restriction which made her grunt and bring him back to reality. "Forgive me if I take too much." He loosened without slowing. "But I want you—no—I need you."

He was everywhere she turned, fitted around her thighs and tugging her bust taut. She gasped for breath, digging her fingers into the sheets and bending her legs as he fulfilled her ache and slowly put her on. Urged on by his single-minded rasping, and the sensation of being worn, she opened her mouth and let out a scream.

He snapped out of his fervor and released her. "Ryuuko!" he called, fearing what he'd done. "Are you OK?!"

After a few moments of recovery, she answered. "You... stopped," she said. "Tch. What do you think?" She was certain she could've kept going.

"We... Did you..." He went blank, collecting himself before speaking again. "I did it," he said at last, getting a little too carried away as her hormones flooded his circulatory system. Rewarded by their euphoric effects, he foolishly laughed himself delirious.

"What are you so damn proud about?" Ryuuko asked, self-conscious over being defeated so quickly. Pulling a pack of biscuit sticks from her nightstand, she popped one into her mouth and tried not to act too hyped. "Whatever! I hope breakfast time gets here soon." She threw herself against the pillows, folding her hands behind her head and trying to placate her still-shaking limbs.

Senketsu's laughing stopped. "Ryuuko..." he murmured.

"Hm?" She chewed to the end of the stick and gulped, ready for whatever he was about to suggest next.

"I want to cuddle," he stated, entering the right frame of mind to start making weird demands.

Ryuuko's eyes narrowed. "Fine," she sighed, concluding this was enough fooling around for the morning, anyway. Senketsu disengaged in a flash and fluttered down to her chest, firmly draping himself against her skin and snuggling in. Bringing an arm around him, she closed her eyes, and then, at nearly dozing off, pulled the covers over them.

"Ryuuko," Senketsu spoke again, not exhausted at all. "Do you ever think about our future together?"

She flinched, caught off-guard by his question. "Wha... what are you going on about now," she said, wondering why he was starting this conversation now of all times. "You know... I never think too hard about the future."

"I was thinking..."

"Uh-huh?"

"If we cannot have children, let's adopt."

"Ch-children?!" Ryuuko lifted him up and stared into his deranged eye. "ARE YOU DRUNK?" she roared, shaking him. "What are you high on?!"

"Love." His eye gleamed.

"Y-you idiot!"

"You are beautiful, Ryuuko." His sleeves rubbed her arms. "Even your voice is..."

"Ughh!" she groaned self-consciously and dropped him. "Let's just go to sleep and talk about that later." She pulled the blankets over her head, hiding her full-body blush.

As she awkwardly pretended to fall asleep, the door flung open and rose petals scattered about the room, piling upon the floor and bed in heaps. "NOW WHAT'RE THOSE BAND NERDS UP TO?" Ryuuko erupted, flinging off her covers and grimacing at the huge mess. "The hell?!" She turned and found Senketsu melting into a pile.

"Good morning!" Mako cried, revealing herself as the mastermind behind the attack. "I'm practicing for the wedding!" She pirouetted in, tossing more petals and picking up speed, becoming a cyclone which pushed every piece of furniture halfway across the room—and forcing her friends to cling for their lives. "Ah, I forgot!" She ceased and checked her watch. "That's right, it's time to get ready for the rehearsal rehearsal!"

"Rehearsal rehearsal?" Ryuuko repeated, still clinging to the bed. With Senketsu tucked under her arm and the petals settling down, she jumped off and flopped through the debris.

"Uh huh." Mako nodded her head. "Today's the day! Did you forget?" She cupped her cheeks as they flushed pink. "Or did you sleep the days away in unknowing bliss?" She tugged her stockings and made disturbing fish faces.

Ryuuko's hair stood on end and her cheeks went pink as well. "D-definitely not," she sputtered and coughed, "Senketsu and I have been, uh, really incredibly busy with preparations these past few days! Isn't that right, Senketsu?"

"Uh... eh, yes," Senketsu answered unconvincingly, "incredibly busy."

"That's right," Ryuuko continued, "this is our first time alone together in awhile and we were trying to get some rest!"

Mako covered her mouth and smiled. "Of course, right right," she answered. "Don't worry you two, I won't tell anyone."

"Good, so have you seen my sist—heh?" Ryuuko emitted, Mako's disclosure just now hitting her. "H-hey... just how long have you been outside our door?" She hunched and pointed at it.

"Hmmm." Mako held her chin, a loud static signal blocking her usually-broadcasted thoughts. "Heh." A dark shadow hid her eyes. "Good job, Senketsu." She gave him a thumbs up and cheerfully stuck out her tongue.

"S-she's admitting it!" Senketsu said.

"So you really were there!" Ryuuko ejected, her hands quivering. "Mako, Mako. What did you hear? Did you see anything?!"

"Oohwahh!" Mako emitted, examining her watch in forced ignorance. "Better get ready!" She waved at them. "I don't remember if I said this or not, I probably did, but congratulations! My whole family's coming so make sure you're there too!" She ran off down the hall and returned to her superhuman petal-tossing—the maids dashing after her with brooms. "Do your best Senketsuuuuu!"

The morning flashed by, and as the cathedral bells struck ten and the rehearsal break ended, the doors flung open and the wedding's guests flooded in. Left to herself, Ryuuko stood alone in the hall's side room, the stained glass window above illuminating warm sun and cascading seven-colored light over her white, ruffle-layered wedding gown. It was a dress befitting of her new, forced status as a Kiryuuin; beaded sweetheart bodice aside, it possessed giant puff sleeves and a massive skirt piled with trails of pearl-sewn lace, bows, precious gemstones, ribbon, and possibly—as Ryuuko surmised—live birds. This was the dress Satsuki had chosen for her, without any more arguments and with complete, uncommunicative compliance. This was the dress she wanted to see on her little sister the most.

It was almost time, but Satsuki had yet to arrive.

"You said," Ryuuko murmured, "you'd walk me." Her fingers hovered over the edges of her white wedding veil, her thoughts lingering whether to wait a little longer or pull it over her crestfallen face. _Did she have important business to take care of?_ she wondered, fumbling with her white leather gloves as the cathedral hummed with the chaotic sound of the orchestra tuning for concert sound. Soon enough, the band started the processional music—music which would lead into the groom's entrance theme and then the bride's, effectively becoming the soundtrack of a bride who would walk down the aisle alone.

_I... what am I getting so upset for? _Ryuuko thought, swallowing hard. _I've walked through life's milestones alone just fine._ _There's no need to worry._ _That's right... I'm sure Sis is fine._

Minutes morphed into seconds and Nonon's band started into the "Trumpet Voluntary", signaling Senketsu's arrival.

"Alright, just get on with it," Ryuuko told herself and reached up, aiming to pull her veil down—when suddenly, another gloved hand lashed out and grabbed hers. Ryuuko exhaled sharply and then, as soon as she saw who it was, beamed with unrestrained joy.

"Let me," Satsuki said, dressed like a prince in an epaulette-shouldered military suit. Ryuuko lowered her head and Satsuki—with great care—brought the short end of the six-meter-long veil down over her. With that, Satsuki offered her arm. "Are you ready?" she asked her little sister pointedly.

"Now you ask," Ryuuko joked, looping her arm in her sister's. With a brief glance, she noticed a strange weapon holstered on her sister's side. There was no time to ask however, for she was ushered out the side door, where Mako appeared and lifted the dragging veil off the ground, buzzing as she proceeded to trail them around the outside and then up the cathedral's front steps, where Ryuuko heard the obnoxiously regal trumpeting that woke her up earlier.

"There it is, there is is!" Mako cried, throwing the door open for them and stepping in, the sun glaring on their backs and Mako's flower petals swirling as they entered the dim cathedral and its mysteriously blue, stained glass filtered light. Everyone who supported and fought beside them during the world's battle stood and turned their way, the pressure of their gazes pouring on Ryuuko unlike any showdown she'd ever faced before.

Satsuki stamped forward, resolutely, strongly, and willfully as she guided her little sister into the fray and right behind an ecstatic, petal-sprinkling Mako. At the end of the aisle stood Senketsu in a long-tailed white tux, wide-eyed and arguably, even more nervous than Ryuuko was. When he saw her, he glowed, entranced by her appearance.

As they reached him, Satsuki took Senketsu's cuff and placed it in Ryuuko's hand, and then—as she furrowed her eyebrows—scowled upon him furiously. "You will cherish her as stated in the prenuptial agreement," Satsuki said, leaning close so no one but them could overhear, "or I will have you destroyed and recycled into parachute cord."

"Sis..." Ryuuko murmured, biting her cheek at Senketsu's terrorized and agape expression.

"No... I understand," Senketsu answered, enduring the comment. "I will." He bowed to carry on with the ceremony, the three young women returning in kind. At that, Ryuuko parted from her sister and best friend and continued holding Senketsu's cuff, carrying him up the steps to the altar, where a foreign priest stood before them. Upon initiating another exchange of bows, the man began.

Satsuki sat down in the front row, and when she did, a hidden earpiece beeped quietly under her hair, followed by Inumuta's voice. "I see the ceremony is moving along perfectly," he said as she positioned her ear plug more comfortably, "my apologies for not attending it in person." Satsuki grinned in acknowledgement and glanced up at one of his many cameras hidden above the altar. "Of course," Inumuta continued, "I've been monitoring the object closely as well." His voice became grim. "It's about to make contact. I'll switch you over now." Hearing this, Satsuki reached into her pocket and retrieved a handkerchief, feigning tears as she shielded her right eye and flipped her earpiece into screen mode. As her lens display flickered under her handkerchief, the image quality improved and provided her a live video satellite feed of space. The Kiryuuin Skyhook emerged above Earth's brilliant atmosphere, a behemoth despite its half-constructed nature, along with the Beach Orbital Net, the both of which crammed their red titles on-screen at once. The feed switched to the unidentified object burning closer among the black abyss, its heat shedding of in smoldering gusts and obscuring its shape. "Trajectory on course," an unknown, static-swamped voice said over the feed. "Absorption switch on. Counter pull stabilized and net ready."

"Skyhook anchored," Inumuta replied. "Our end is ready."

"It jumped forward!"

Satsuki's eye widened as the sun-like mass slammed into the astronomical net and began spinning in-place, like a saw blade, forcing against the net's entire slack.

"I see it accelerated," Inumuta said. "You will adjust your counter pull to the numbers I just sent you."

"These degrees are... that's too high!"

"Do it now," Inumuta ordered, "or you'll be slung and smashed against the Kiryuuin Skyhook!"

The net retook its slack but the object kept sawing ahead, shredding through the glistening solar reinforced carbon fibers and then—with a relentless charge—breaking on through. Released from the net, both the skyhook and tether station drifted apart, disconnected by the tear.

"N...no way," the unknown party gasped. "It's entering Earth's atmosphere!"

"Keep drifting, we're clearing the path and initiating phase two," Inumuta explained. "Firing the Kiryuuin laser canon in sixty seconds."

Satsuki clenched the handkerchief against her eye lens and almost crushed it to pieces.

Mako, sitting on the pew beside Satsuki, noticed and smiled.

"It's only right," Mako said to herself, clueless, "if mom and dad are crying, so should Ryuuko's big sister!"

Her entire family wailed inconsolably. "Ryuuko!" they sobbed, clinging to each other. "Senketsu!"

Mataro Makanshoku was markedly regretful. "If only," he said, "if only I were born a sailor uniform!"

Mako squinted her eyes and nodded in agreement. "Mh-hm," she emitted dreamily. "But I'm so happy for them, all the same."

The vows began and the priest turned to Ryuuko, addressing her in a manner respectably dignified in light of who—or what she was marrying. "Do you take this kamui," he asked solemnly, "as your husband?"

"Yes," she said, fists clenched.

He turned to Senketsu. "And do you take this woman as your wife?"

Senketsu took a deep breath. "Yes," he pronounced audibly, loud enough for everybody to hear.

At once, the guests fell halfway off their seats and then murmured to one another confusedly.

"What do you know, he talked!" the Mankanshoku father said and then added stupidly: "Did he always do that?"

The Mankanshoku mother clasped her hands together. "Of course not," she said, her soft eyes sparkling, "I would've remembered such a handsome voice! Especially if it were screaming in pain and begging me to stop."

"It seems Senketsu evolved enough after all," Mikisugi said, poking in on their conversation from the row behind. "Though perhaps... he can make himself be heard when he's making important claims?" He turned to his bulky comrade sitting beside him.

Tsumugu crossed his muscled arms and glowered. "Even if it has pockets, clothing can claim nothing. Even if a human wears clothes, the result is the same," he responded. "Let me tell you two useful pieces of information. One: hearing clothing speak is no big deal. Two: marrying clothing is an affront to nature."

"And yet you still came to the wedding."

"I owe them as much."

"It's not enough. You need to cry for them."

"I'm crying internally."

"It's too bad Doggy had to miss this," Nonon commented, sitting next to the Mankanshoku family, along with Sanageyama and a very compressed Gamagori and his settling of an equivalent third of the bench.

"I'm certain Inumuta is watching," Gamagori said, aware of the events transpiring elsewhere.

Sanageyama sat sullenly. "He's not missing much," he said.

Mako wormed between him and Gamagori. "Shhhh!" Mako shushed them. "The kiss, the kiss!" Her excited insistence made the larger man turn red.

The priest raised his hands. "You may now kiss the bride," he said.

Everybody hushed and leaned forward, watching in suspense.

Satsuki leaned forward as well, but for entirely different reasons. "Three... two," Inumuta's voice said in her earpiece, the lens screen displaying video of the Kiryuuin laser cannon's half-a-kilometer-wide barrel trained on the sky, "one... Firing."


End file.
